Posts Tagged ‘Pork’

  1. Made in Jiānádà: Suzhou Porky Mooncakes

    August 31, 2012 by MaryAnne

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    Hello. I’ve been away for a while, haven’t I?

    It’s been a very hot,  busy summer, much of it nowhere near a kitchen to call my own.

    We were in Morocco for a month, which was lovely in spite of the fact that it was 46 degrees in the shade AND Ramadan for most of the time we were there. Whoops.

    Anyway. I’ve been back in Shanghai for nearly three weeks now and have yet to dust off the oven and check to see if it even still works. Poor thing. I’ve made chili and tacos and a ton of wok tortillas, but those aren’t new things so I can’t exactly re-write posts for them just for the sake of it.

    This one… this is one I made back in Canada just before I left, but never posted.

    Why?

    Because I royally screwed it up.  Kind of. I made Suzhou pork hockey pucks.

    You know, the Canadian interpretation. Like, say, chop suey or bison fried rice.

    Apparently my skillful light touch and intuitive cooking skills don’t apply to pastry.

    I love Suzhou mooncakes. In China, however, it isn’t worth the energy to actually make them at home because they are so good, so fresh and so cheap here.

    For the past two mornings, on my long, hot trek out to the Entry-Exit Bureau in deepest, darkest Pudong to renew my residence permit, I’ve stopped at a tiny stand at the bottom of our street to buy a little brown bag containing exactly two mooncakes, still hot and flakey and filled with lovely, juicy, umami seasoned ground pork, fresh from the oven. 6 kuai (under a buck) for a very solid breakfast.

    I was too busy eating them to take pictures, but below is one I took a few weeks ago when I was actually in Suzhou. See the little red stamp on the ones below? They stamp their mooncakes, yes. Much more low key than all the fiddly crimping and dough-engraving that goes on with the classical lotus paste and duck egg filled Cantonese style ones that are exchanged (and then re-gifted and re-gifted, like fruitcake) during the mid-autumn festival (coming very soon). (more…)

    Category Baked Things, Improbable Things, Made in Jianada, Uncategorized | Tags: ,,,,,, | 5 Comments

  2. Made in Jiānádà: Homestyle porky Eggplant (家常茄子)

    July 11, 2012 by MaryAnne

    We took ours camping. It reheats very well in a cast iron fry pan over a propane camp stove. Just so you know.

    Eggplant (茄子 or qiézi) was one of the first words I learned in Mandarin back in early 2009, partly because we ordered it so often that it inevitably had to stick in my head, and partly because it sounded like a hybrid between cheese and chaise (as in longue). Kind of like ch’yay’zuh.

    Except not really.

    If you are anything like me, your tones will be so inconceivably wrong that you could say it every day for three years and still only get it right half the time.

    And I do get practice saying it. We eat spiced deep fried eggplant slices, stewed umami eggplant fingers with sizzling red and green peppers, dry fried green beans with long melty lengths of lightly spiced eggplant with just a hint of pork crumble. At home, I’ve baked it and fried it and breaded it.

    When I lived in Turkey, I lived on it.

    And the thing is, until a decade ago, I thought I hated eggplant. I loathed it, in fact. It was on the list of things I told people I didn’t like, alongside all sorts of fungus and organ meats.

    What I failed to realize, however, was that 1. I just hated those big spongy bitter eggplants normally sold in Canada and 2. I hate big spongy chunks of poorly prepared eggplant.

    Those little tiny thin Asian and Turkish purple-black eggplants, properly sauteed or baked slowly and drizzled in olive oil? Those I like.

    This recipe is astonishingly easy to pull together and really quite tasty, even for those who think they hate eggplant. It’s not at all spongy and it’s not at all bitter. It tastes even better, reheated over a propane camp stove three days later, eaten plain with a spoon in little unbreakable bowls in the wilds of Vancouver Island.

    This is, as the name says, simple homestyle eggplant (家常茄子 – jiācháng qiézi). This is comfort food. (more…)

    Category Improbable Things, Made in Jianada, Spicy Things, Uncategorized | Tags: ,,,,,, | 6 Comments

  3. Made in Jiānádà: Pork and Green Beans, China-Style

    July 8, 2012 by MaryAnne

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    I’m not actually anywhere near my kitchen right now. In fact, I’m out in the wilds of Vancouver Island with my family, camping outside the gates of the Island Music Fest. My laptop is being powered by one of my dad’s spare car batteries and I’m stealing wifi from one of the sound stages. Music is drifting across the Grassy Knoll. No, not that grassy knoll. The other one.

    This recipe is one I made last week, before we drove up island to the Comox Valley for a week. Our culinary excursions here have consisted of reheating things we had made earlier on the tiny propane burner in the tiny little camper.

    For the record, eggplant with minced pork (to be posted when we get back) reheats fabulously.

    This is a whole other deal, though working within the porky paradigm. This is one we have eaten many times in Shanghai, though I have to limit my intake as Doug’s less of a green bean fan than I am. If I could, I’d live on spicy minced pork with green beans (and eggplant!).

    It’s very easy to make and the prep can be done in instalments. Do a little bit, walk away, come back later and do more. Assemble and cook when you’re ready.

    It goes well as a side dish or as a main dish with rice. We actually chopped up the leftovers into little pieces and used it to fill fresh Vietnamese rice rolls (you know, the discs that you soak briefly in warm water to soften), along with fresh cilantro, vinegared onions, scallions and a squeeze of fresh lime. Gorgeous. There are no photos of this because we ate EVERYTHING.

    They call these dry fried string beans in English in the recipe (technically it’s dry stirred- gān biān 干煸 - whatever that means) but they’re actually fried in oil, which isn’t exactly parched.

    Go figure.

    I kind of want to call out a square dance with this one, but with a hearty sìjì dòu instead of a do-si-do.

    Ladies and gents, I give you pork ‘n beans. Kind of. (more…)

    Category Improbable Things, Made in Jianada, Spicy Things, Uncategorized | Tags: ,,,,, | 5 Comments

  4. Spicy 卡罗来纳州 Style Crock-Pot Pulled Pork

    October 26, 2011 by MaryAnne

    Lunch of champions: I ate mine with a blorp of home made yogurt. It was stunning.

    I should preface this one by noting that I’m sick today. Part cold, part sore throat, part achy dopiness. Which is why I kind of screwed up some key parts of this recipe.

    If you look below at the recipe, you’ll see it calls for 5lbs of pork shoulder.

    On Monday afternoon, when I bought and initially prepared the piece of pork, I didn’t look at the size or weight or cut. I just bought a reasonably sized piece, fit for a household where one person doesn’t really eat meat (me) and the other doesn’t really like pork (Doug). However, I really like the pulled pork sandwich at Boxing Cat Brewery (about 80rmb) and thought it would be worth attempting at home. (more…)

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    Category Improbable Things, Soupy Stewy Things, Spicy Things, Uncategorized | Tags: ,,,,, | 9 Comments