Asian Cooking: Vietnamese Food: Caramelized Pork Belly W/Eggs Thit Kho Tau Or Kaw!

Asian Cooking

Vietnamese Food

 



 

 

 

This week it's  Vietnamese food! Whoohoo! I LOVE my Asian cooking! Everyone knows I LOVE my Asian cooking! Everyone knows I LOVE my Vietnamese food! I love the flavors of Southeast Asia in my Asian Cooking. This week I am making Vietnamese food again. I am making a dish that I was introduced to by my friend Saveda Lee on her Youtube channel. This week I am making caramelized pork belly with eggs. This dish is called Thit Kho Tau or Thit Kho Kaw. This is a true 100% Vietnamese dish that is also very popular in Cambodia as well.

Thit Kho Tau is enjoyed year round in Vietnam but it's really popular during the lunar new year and this year it's the year of the Dragon! Happy New Year! Happy New Year of the Dragon! (Chúc mừng năm mới và năm hạnh phúc của con rồng!) Thit Kho Tau originates from South Vietnam. The name Thit Kho Tau literally translates into braised pork in light sauce. I think that's very interesting because when I made this dish during my research the sauce gets to be a nice dark brown and if you add some thick soy sauce to it for coloration then it will get even darker.

As in other cuisines around the world Vietnamese food like this dish of Thit Kho Tau uses certain ingredients. The traditional cut of pork for this dish is pork shoulder although my friend Saveda who turned me onto this dish uses pork belly. Well! Fat is where the flavor is with Thit Kho Tau. I live by the frame of mind that there are no rules in the kitchen and this holds true with Asian cooking as well. In my research I found people using pork tenderloin, pork short ribs, pork belly and pork shoulder. This just goes to show you that there are no rules in the kitchen.  So with this recipe for Vietnamese food I decided to use one and a half pounds of pork belly and one and a half pounds of pork shoulder. Well, I do have to watch out for my girlish figure you know! No matter which cut of pork you decide to use if you cut off to much fat then you will certainly lose so much of the wonderful flavor of this recipe. So resign yourself to eating this dish and loving it as much as I do with the fat. Remember! You aren't eating this dish everyday of the week! You can handle it!

Asian cooking is so versatile and that is why I love to cook it so much. The base of this recipe is all Saveda's recipe and then I am going to add a couple of little things here and there to give my own little twist to the recipe but believe me this recipe is all Savy's! So if you love Vietnamese food as much as I do I would urge you to try this excellent recipe! This recipe as far as I am concerned is Vietnamese soul food and the soul of Vietnamese food! This recipe is best served with a side dish of Chinese pickled mustard greens which are called Kiam Chai or Hum Choy or Chrouk Spey and/or pickled bean sprouts called dua gia (pronounced yua ya) these are some of the favorite mon chua or pickled dishes of Vietnamese people when eating thit kho tau.  Make this dish! Enjoy this dish! Make this dish you own! Enjoy the video! And thank you Savvy for a great recipe!



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Malaysian Food: Nasi Lemak: My Nasi Lemak Recipe

Malaysian Food: Nasi Lemak

 

 

This week I am making Malaysian food a dish that is considered the national dish of Malayasia! This week I am going to prepare Nasi Lemak. I am doing this to fulfill a request by one of my Youtube viewers named Deeya Kaur. She is Malayasian and she has been watching some of the Asian dishes that I make and eventually she hit me up to make a Malayasian food. I asked for a suggestion from here and I got two words in reply: Nasi Lemak! I have never had Nasi Lemak nor had I even heard of Nasi Lemak before and I thought I knew Asian food. I had never experienced Malaysian food of any type and I guess now was as good a time as any. So I did some research on Malaysian food and Malaysian dishes of different types and I focused on Nasi Lemak. So this week I am going to make my Nasi Lemak recipe. I think I am going to be adding lots of Malaysian food to my Asian cooking repertoire in the future as the food looks absolutely delicious! So here it is! My Nasi Lemak recipe.

Naturally, Nasi Lemak has it's humble beginnings in the cuisine of Malay. The term Nasi Lemak means "fatty rice", not to worry there is no fat in the rice except for the content of the coconut milk and it is delicious! If you want to break the meanings of Nasi Lemak down even further you can say that Nasi Lemak means "rich" or "creamy". Originally, the way this coconut rice was cooked was by soaking the rice in the coconut milk or cream and then the mixture was steamed. Flavor is added to the Nasi Lemak by the addition of something called "screwpine" leaves or "pandan" leave. Generally the coconut rice is cooked with one or two of these leaves knotted up and put in the pot with the rice to cook. These leaves impart some of the traditional flavor to the Nasi Lemak dish. There are some additional herbs that can be added to the Nasi Lemak rice that will give it an even more spicy flavor and aroma and those herbs are lemon grass and ginger.

Nasi Lemak is traditionally served on a plate or platter that is loaded with side dishes that are wrapped in banana leaves. In most modern iterations and recipes we find that the Nasi Lemak is served on a plate or platter with a banana leaf on top and the side dishes put on top of the banana leaf. Such Nasi Lemak sides dishes as regular or seedless cucumber slices, some small fried Ikan Bilis or anchovies, roasted peanuts or roasted peanuts mixed with some friend anchovies or Ikan Bilis, quartered hard boiled eggs, and of course some hot and spicy sambal sauce. There are other sides that can be used as well such as fried chicken, fried fish, pickled vegetables, Kangkong vegetable, beef rendang, or even cuttlefish in chile called "sambal sotong". Nasi Lemak is all about whether you want your Nasi Lemak to be at some level vegetarian or not. Since Nasi Lemak is the national food of Malayasia you can find it just about anywhere. In schools, in restaurants, and even in street vendor stalls all over Malayasia! I am making my Nasi Lemak with a variety of side dishes like hard boiled egg, quail eggs in sambal (Sambal Telur), grilled ono fillets, sliced cucumbers and cashews in sambal (cashews dalam sambal). There are other side dishes that you can have with Nasi Lemak, things like fried chicken, chili cuttlefish, and vegetables of all kinds. It really is up to you to make your Nasi Lemak that way you want it to be! It is all up to you and you should try this dish at home yourself and make it yours! Enjoy!

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Slow Cooker Recipes: Pork Shoulder Recipes: Slow Cooker Pork Shoulder Roast

Hi guys! This week it's back to some slow cooker recipes! This week it's going to be slow cooker recipes and it's going to be one of my pork shoulder recipes. It seems to me that I get a lot of requests from England lately. About two months ago one of my Youtube viewers asked me how I would cook a blade in pork shoulder in a slow cooker. Seems this chap uses a slow cooker on a regular basis.

So I could not get to his request as quickly as I wanted to because I had other requests but this week it's slow cooker recipes and I am going to make one of my favorite pork shoulder recipes for my Youtube viewer. This week I am making slow cooker pork shoulder in a white wine and dijon mustard sauce. I's going to be delicious!

I love slow cooker recipes! It's just one of those things that is set and forget. When I got this request to do pork shoulder recipes I really had to put some thought as to how I wanted to approach this. So I thought about the many slow cooker recipes that I know and that fact that I do not know a lot of pork shoulder recipes and I decided to cook the pork shoulder much in the same manner as I cook my beef when I did my beef bourguignon recipe not to long ago.

When it comes to slow cooker recipes I cooked the beef bourguignon in a red wine sauce and I thought that with pork shoulder recipes I could cook the pork shoulder in a white wine sauce much as I did the beef. I worked on it for a week and come up with the ideal way to make one of the best slow cooker recipes that I have had in a long time.

Pork shoulder recipes are not easy to make. You just can't throw a pork shoulder in the oven and baste it and hope that it comes out tender because it won't! It will come out like you are eating an old wallet! There is a lot of connective tissue in pork shoulder so I decided to cook the shoulder in a slow cooker with white wine, dijon mustard, andouille sausage, potatoes and vegetables!

As with many slow cooker recipes this dish will take upwards of eight hours to come to completion. Whether it's beef slow cooker recipes or pork shoulder recipes, when it comes to meat that is a bit on the tough side with lots of tissue that needs to be broken down then the best way is in the slow cooker. The slow cooker will take an average, not so tasty piece of meat and turn it into a meal fit for a king.

One of the keys to an excellent slow cooker dish like pork shoulder recipes is to pre-cook or brown many if not all of the constituent parts of the meal to put flavor into them before using them for your slow cooker recipes! In most cases to just throw your ingredients into a slow cooker or crockpot and just add some herbs and spices and let it cook away just makes for a soggy somewhat flavorless mess! This is why with my slow cooker recipes I always brown up all the constituent parts before they go into the slow cooker!
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Sweetbreads: Sweetbread Recipes: Sweetbreads With Bacon Mushroom Shallot And Garlic

Sweetbreads: Sweetbread Recipes

 



 

 

 

 

This week guys I am making sweetbreads! What are sweetbreads you ask? Well to quote my favorite chef Jacques Pepin  sweetbreads are part of a cooking set known as "essential offal." I was just a young boy the first time I had sweetbreads. I must have been 16yrs old if that and my mom was dating a real Arizona cowboy at the time and he was the one who introduced me to sweetbreads! This man whose name was Howard is also the man responsible for my initial interest in knives of all kinds and it's because of this introduction to knives that is responsible for my current skill set with knives and not just kitchen knives. The sweetbreads that Howard made were soaked in salt water overnight and then poached in water for a few minutes and then cooked in butter until they were caramelized and nut brown a bit crispy and delicious indeed! it's hard to describe how sweetbreads taste but suffice to say besides the bit of crunch from the caramelizing they were so tender you just can't believe it! They were meaty indeed with a slight sweetness flavor that I had never experienced before. I have been eating sweetbreads since then in many different ways.

So for those of you that have never had the pleasure of eating sweetbreads you may ask what are sweetbreads? Sweetbreads are the pancreas and thymus glands and calf, veal, lamb and pork! Some chefs and people call the thymus the throat sweetbread or in French cooking the thymus is referred to as a "gorge." Also in French the pancreas is referred to as the "noix." The "noix" sweetbread is from the stomach or heart and the "gorge" sweetbread comes from the animals throat.

There are of course with all things different levels of quality in sweetbreads just as there is different levels of quality in just about anything you buy. The absolute best quality sweetbreads are considered to come from veal or calves that are milk fed and the sweetbreads from lamb are highly prized as well. The best part is that sweetbreads are delicious and they are very affordable whether they come from the pig, calf, veal or lamb. In my humble opinion I think you my readers should try them all ASAP! Personally I like to consider sweetbreads as what I refer to as quite posh! Sweetbreads are made all over the world and in many different ways and I doubt that I will every get to try them all but, I will try to!

Personally, I don't find sweetbreads to be very popular where I live or anyplace that I have ever lived. A lot of people I know don't know what a sweetbread is or they have never tried them before. Sweetbreads are not the easiest dish to prepare because you have to dicker around with them a bit before you get to the point of cooking them but the dickering is well worth it. The issue with preparing sweetbreads is that they have a rather thick membrane surrounding them and the cook needs to get the membranes off the sweetbread before cooking them. The trick is to keep just enough of the membrane on the sweetbreads to keep them in one piece and discard the rest. It's a bit tricky but even if you take off all the the membrane and the sweetbreads to not remain intact you can still cook them and totally enjoy them.

Now as I have stated the sweetbreads themselves can be cooked in many different ways and are an extremely affordable and versatile food. No matter how you finally decide to cook your sweetbreads the fact of the matter is that no matter what kind of sweetbreads you are going to make either from veal, lamb, pork, beef they will all be prepared the same way initially! The first step in preparing sweetbreads is the soaking process. The sweetbreads must be soaked in cold water. It's best to have your cold water "acidulated" That sounds complicated but it's not. Acidulated water is just water that has an acid content in it from lemon juice, lime juice, vinegar or white wine. Basically this acidulated water step is no different than brining. When I brine or acidulate something I like to do it for at least 24hrs. In this case the acidulated water is designed to get impurities out of the sweetbreads. The term for this part of the sweetbreads preparation is called "degorging". Make sure that you change the acidulated water at least once every six to eight hours before moving on to the next step in the sweetbreads preparation.

The next step in the sweetbreads initial preparation is to poach or blanch the sweetbreads in cold water taht is brought up to a slow boil. There are a couple of ways to perform the poaching or blanching of the sweetbreads. The first is the cold water or you may opt to poach/blanch the sweetbreads in some kind of stock of which any will do or you can make something called a "court bouillon". A court bouillon is basically a stock of your own making using your chosen herbs and spices to poach/blanch your sweetbreads in. Basically a court bouillon is an aromatic soup of your making and in general terms a court bouillon is used in the poaching of fish and shellfish but it great for poaching your sweetbreads. After the sweetbreads have been blanched your take them from the hot liquid of your choice and put them in ice cold water to shock them. This blanching and shocking step helps to get rid of more impurities that might still be in your sweetbreads. The blanching process can take anywhere from 2 to 15 minutes depending on your needs. I usually blanch for about 10 minutes.

The third step in the sweetbreads initial preparation is to remove that membrane I was talking about earlier in this post. Just use your hands and remove the membrane/veins and do it gently. The fourth and final step of your initial preparation is a judgement call on your part depending on how you want your sweetbreads to come out or how you are going to use them in any particular dish. The optional last step is pressing your sweetbreads before cooking them. This is done by taking a plate or baking dish and lining it with a clean towel and then laying your sweetbreads on top of the towel then put another towel on top of the sweetbreads and put another plate or baking dish on top and then find some canned food and put a couple of pounds of weight on top of the sweetbreads to press them. It is best to get 5 to 10 lbs of weight on the sweetbreads to press them. Put the sweetbreads in your refrigerator for between 4 to 24 hours to get the excess water out of the sweetbreads. You want the sweetbreads to be pressed to about 3/4 of an inch. This makes the sweetbreads a bit denser and meatier. I love to press my sweetbreads because of the consistency that I get out of them this way. Remember! This is an optional step. You don't have to press your sweetbreads and they will still be delicious!

Now all the initial preparation has paid off and it's time to cook up some sweetbreads! There are tons of ways to cook sweetbreads. You can saute sweetbreads in a red or white wine or you can deep fry your sweetbreads by either battering them or dredging them the southern fried way. You can put sweet bread on the grill or cedar plank cook them. Here's one for you....Put your sweetbreads in the wood smoker for awhile and they will be yummy! You can braise them, roast them, poach sweetbreads! The ways to cook sweetbreads is endless if you really want to think about it. I would have to say that sweetbreads are my favorite form of essential offal as Jacques Pepin would say. I will be serving these sweetbreads with a side of pan seared pearl onions and artichoke hearts! Watch the video and enjoy!


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Seeds: Celery Seed

 

 

Hi everyone! I know it's been a long time since I have done a post about any herbs or spices but, I have been so busy cooking and taking requests for recipes that I forgot about doing informational posts on the things we use in our cooking endeavors and that being things like herbs and spice. So today I am going to do this little post about the venerable celery seed! It's something that I use in baking many times and I thought talking about the celery seed would be a great place to pick up on my informational posts. The venerable celery seed is not a vegetable even though many people buy celery as a vegetable and hence think that the celery seed is the seed of the vegetable. Well, it is! But the celery seed is not a vegetable, it's a fruit! It's the fruit of a plant known as the Apium Graviolens! The celery seed is a member of the parsley family which I thought was an interesting fact in itself! For those of you that have gardens and grow herb and spices the celery seed is a biennial. The celery seed is the same species of seed used to grow standard table celery. The celery seed is very small measuring in at 1/16th of an inch and is oval/ovoid and is light brownish in it's coloring.

As with many of the herbs and spice we use in this country the venerable celery seed comes to us from another country, that being India! I just love my Indian herbs and spices!
Besides being used in cooking endeavors the celery seed has been used as medicine since the time of the ancient Greeks. Around the 19th century celery seeds were being used as a vegetable in food and in other food uses such as pickling. The celery seed tastes like celery and when crushed to be used in recipes is very aromatic and slightly bitter. You would be very surprised to find out that the celery seed is used in more places than you think! Ever use Old Bay seasoning in your cooking? Guess what? Old Bay makes use of celery seeds for their aromatic qualities. Do you like to have a Bloody Mary on occasion? Of course you do! The best Bloody Mary's are made using celery salt which comes from the celery seed! If you come from New York as I do then you have had a New York hot dog I am sure over at Nathans Famous in Coney Island. Remember how it tasted? Now have you ever been to Chicago? The famous Varsity Hot Dogs of Chicago! The Chicago hot dog tastes different than a New York hot dog because the Chicago dog used celery seed in the recipe! Some other uses for celery seeds are in soups and dressings. I love chicken soup don't you? I always add dill weed to my chicken soup and then I add some crushed up celery seeds for a great taste
and an extra boost to the soups aroma! Celery seed is fantastic in coleslaw and potpies and in some countries celery seed is used in making alcoholic drinks!

So as you can see the venerable celery seed is quite a versatile spice in the kitchen. I have given you some general information about the celery seed and some recipes and foods that the celery seed is used it. Now it's your turn to explore how you can use the celery seed in your cooking endeavors. I would like to hear what you come up with! Until next time thanks for reading!







Photo Courtesy Of Howcheng

Rice: Rice Recipes: Brown Rice And Wild Rice Pilaf

Rice: Rice Recipes

 

Hi guys! This week I am making one of my favorite rice recipes! I love rice recipes and this week I am making a rice recipe that is a brown rice and wild rice pilaf! This isn't going to be a vegetarian rice dish as I am going to be using chicken broth to cook the brown rice. Rice recipes are just one of those staple dishes that people just love. Whenever I make a rice pilaf I do it the way I learned from watching Jacques Pepin. I add some oil to a sauce pan and then I put the rice in and cook it in the oil and then I add some salt and pepper and then I add the liquid and cook the rice. It always turns out great. I will be doing this for the brown rice but now for the wild rice in this recipe.

Rice recipes are just something that are easy to work with and makes a spectacular side dish or appetizer to any main course. This brown rice and wild rice pilaf recipe comes on the heel of so many of my Youtube subscribers sending me messages and emails about my new healthy meal recipes channel. I must admit that one needs to listen to their audience. My subs keep emailing me that my new channel is good but that they would rather see me do my lighter recipes, my vegetarian/vegan recipes on my regular EZCooking channel. It is in this vein that I will no longer be doing videos on my HealthyMealRecipes channel and I will just add the lighter menu's to my already existing channel. In this way people can find all of my recipes.  Having a second channel was worth a shot but I have to listen to my subs!

So today it's going to be one of my favorite rice recipes! It's going to be a brown rice and wild rice pilaf with onions, mushrooms, garlic and Pepita's! This is a dish that I put together this last week and I am sure it's going to be one of my favorite rice recipes! In this brown rice and wild rice recipe I am going for the earthy flavors of the brown rice and wild rice with addition of baby portobello mushrooms, oregano and Pepita's! No doubt, there will be lots of crunch in this recipe!

Rice recipes are an excellent accompaniment to any main dish and they are easy to make! So if you like brown rice and if you like wild rice then let's get together and make a brown rice and wild rice pilaf that will go good with any dish! Enjoy the video!

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Vegetarian Recipes: Italian Caponata And Marinated Mushrooms

Caponata

 

Marinated Mushrooms

 

 

This week I am making two more vegetarian recipes and they are caponata (Caponata Alla Siciliana) and marinated mushrooms (Funghi Marinati). Both are easy classic Italian side dishes that are vegetarian recipes/vegan recipes in nature and are so versatile that what these two side dishes can be used on or in is just about endless!

These recipes of caponata or as we say in New York caponade and marinated mushrooms will be featured on my new Youtube channel called HealthyMealRecipes. I have been making these dishes since I was a boy and I love them both. The caponata begins with eggplant and is combined with red bell peppers, onions, garlic, capers and in some cases pine nuts. I am allergic to pine nuts so I will be using walnuts in their place.

The marinated mushrooms  (Funghi Marinati) can be made with any mushroom you want but are traditionally made with white button mushrooms or crimini/baby portobello mushrooms. I have made this dish using oyster mushrooms and shitake mushrooms at times and they are all delicious vegetarian recipes!

I am starting out with these easy side dishes on my new channel because of the versatility these vegetarian recipes have to  offer in healthy more balanced meals that are low in fat or animal protein. I am not saying that my new channel is solely based on vegan/vegetarian recipes. I am saying that the new channel is based on a more balanced approach to eating than high fat or animal protein diets offer. So with this new channel I will be focusing on less fats and animal proteins and will strive to use healthier fats and other forms of protein.

This is where caponata (Caponata Alla Siciliana) and marinated mushrooms (Funghi Marinati) come it handy. Here are some examples of how both of these vegetarian recipes can be used. The caponata is great by itself or as a sandwich on either flat breads or Italian breads. It's great on corn tortillas! Caponata is fantastic on pasta, rice, mixed with other veggies or in salads! Caponata can be blended into a paste to be used as a dip or spread or as the first layer of a brushetta. Caponata paste/spread is great on meat, fish or poultry if that is your desire. It is just a wonderful accompaniment to other food.

The marinated mushrooms (Funghi Marinati) is another versatile side dish that also can be used in pasta, rice, salads, sandwiches, soups and with meat, fish and poultry as well. These marinated mushrooms can also be processed in food processor and made into a mushroom pate as well.

So basically the sky is the limit when it comes to these two great Italian vegetarian recipes/side dishes whether you are vegan/vegetarian or not! So without further adieu let's get going on making caponata (Caponata Alla Siciliana) and marinated mushrooms (Funghi Marinati) Enjoy the video and please visit my new Youtube channel at HealthyMealRecipes.

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