All posts tagged scallion

By Jessica | January 21, 2009 | Main Courses, Recipes | 5 Comments

I don’t like pork chops. Something about all that white meat that is far too… meaty for me. I know, I know. You’re like, wtf. This chick writes some bullshit about not liking meat on her own crap site called Go Meat Yourself!? I’m a hypocrite – what can I say? Well, I can say this: pile me up a slab of dark meat; juicy, fatty, tender dark meat (I swear to christ my mouth is watering right now) and I will go to town. But, if I’m trying to please my man in the kitchen – hold up, let me clarify. So, if I’m trying to please my man by COOKING my man what my man likes, and if what he likes is pork chops, baby gonna cook him some pork chops. Baby just gonna have to find a way to hide that shit under a whole lotta flava. So check it. I present to you Parmesan Crusted Pork Chops over a Green Salad with Goat Cheese.

Parmesan Crusted Pork Chops over a Green Salad with Goat Cheese

For the meat:
2 boneless, center-cut pork chops, about 1/2 thick
1/2 fresh large grated parmesan
2 eggs, mixed in a bowl
1 cup of plain bread crumbs
1 tbs dried rosemary
a sprinkle of dried thyme and/or oregano
salt and pepper for taste
oil of choice for frying

For the salad:
Salad greens for two, preferably mesclun
2 stalks of scallion, sliced
some goat cheese to your liking
olive oil
1 lemon, cut in 4

Salt and pepper your pork chops. Put your eggs in a bowl. Mix the bread crumbs and your herbs into a bowl. Coat the chops in the parmesan and make sure it really sticks. Dip the chops in the egg and next in the bread crumbs. Heat a heavy skillet with your fryin oil and drop each chop in when hot. You know its hot enough when you flick a bit of water and it sizzles. Cook for about 5 minutes on either side. Cut into the chop to know its not bloody still and you won’t die or horrific death of trichinosis. While the are cooking up…

Add your salad greens to each plate. Distribute the goat cheese – or if you like, bleu, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Squeeze one quarter of each lemon over each salad. Drizzle with olive oil.

When the porkies are done, place directly on top of the salad. Drizzle some of each of the remaining lemon wedge halves and let sit them sit on the plate for additional squeezing by your eater. (They like to get involved).

This goes well with beer and a side of Family Guy while you eat.

By Jessica | December 12, 2008 | Main Courses, Recipes | 2 Comments

What makes your mouth water? For some it’s pickles, for others it’s burgers. For me it’s both those things AND spicy noodle soup. Either of these three items would cause me to do a diddy if I could eat them all day long without getting to be a total fat ass.

When I found out how easy it is to enhance the 10 cent ramen from your college days, I made it at least once a week. I have now ventured into making it from a soup base with fresh(ish) noodles. Next will be homemade stock. Watch out David Chang, I’m either going to eventually out-ramen your ass, or maybe just come to your restaurant. But you’ll have to roll me out. There!

Anyway, here is a recipe for deliciousness. If you have never cooked anything before, you should start with this.

Ramen with Roast Pork, Mushroom and Poached Egg

1.5 c of ramen soup base (find this in the Spanish/Chinese section of your grocery)
5 c of water
2 inches of fresh ginger, very thinly sliced
one jalapeno, very thinly sliced
8 fresh shitake mushrooms
1 tbs of butter
1 cup of cooked roast pork
3 scallions, sliced
1 egg
your favorite asian noodle: udon, ramen, rice, up to you
kimchi for garnish
sirachi for extra fire mouth
This serves two.

Bring a big pot of water to boil for your noodles. You will also be using this boiling water for poaching the egg but more on that later.

I would really recommend you pause in your sheffin and go buy a mandolin right now. The mandolin has become the love of my kitchen life. But, if you are really not going to do that, grab your jalapeno and ginger and slice the shit out of them – you want them really thin. If you slice really thinly, you can get away without peeling the ginger. Combine the soup base and water in a medium sauce pan and add the ginger and jalapeno. Put on a slow to medium heat.

When the water for your noodles starts to boil, add the noodles.

Remove the stems from your mushrooms and slice. In a small sauce pan, add a tablespoon of butter and a bit of olive oil. Saute the mushrooms until soft. Set aside.

As your soup stock is simmering and your noodles are cooking, cut your scallions, heat your pork if it isn’t already, and get out your eggs and kimchi. I make my kimchi myself. It isn’t entirely traditionally but easy as shit. Check it here.

When your scallion is cut, and your pork is warm and your kimchi is no longer cold from from sitting in the fridge, maybe your noodles are ready, depending on the noodle you are working with. You are going to have to judge that for yourself. When they are done, it’s about moving quickly to assemble your bowl.

When the noodles are done, don’t drain – grab them with a tong and put them in the serving bowl. Add the broth to the noodles. Keep the water from the noodles boiling and very gently crack two eggs into the water. While those cook for 2.5 minutes, add the scallion, pork, mushroom, and kimchi to the soup bowl in pretty little clumps. Leave room for the egg. After 2.5 minutes, with a slotted spoon, carefully take each egg out of the water and add to the bowls. You are looking for a solid egg white but a soft yoke. It will be hard to tell but you’ll get better with practice. Swear.

Serve your ramen with sirachi sauce for the freaks and pop a beer cause this one is hot and spicy.

When you are ready to eat, crack your eggs with chop sticks and with each bite, swirl your noodles through the yoke. This will be the best bit of food you ever done had.

By Jessica | November 21, 2008 | Recipes, Snackin, Salads and Apps | 4 Comments

It was a friend’s birthday recently so we decided to give a peck of pickled perfection. The tasty treat was a trifecta of Bob McClures Spicy Dill, Rick’s Pick’s Mean Beans, and JJ’s Homemade Tried and True Super Tested Fire Butt Kimchi (that’s the new name). Check my recipe for the least traditional kimchi you ever done heard of. But, for any of those losers that think they don’t like kimchi, give em my version and they’ll be thanking you for turning their ignance around in a big way.

Kimchi is a typical korean condiment eaten with many a meal. Generally it’s fermented cabbage, pickled with rice vinegar, sirachi, ginger, scallion, and/or garlic. I’ve also had this with daikon or radish instead of the cabbage, maybe it’s called something else, don’t know. All are great. But for mines, I’m not trying to use garlic, and I don’t ferment the cabbage, and I added extra cayenne pepper just to make sure my mouth burns when I eat it.

Oh, AND? I make huge amounts at a time. It’s really cheap to make and lasts forever. Kimchi can be eaten as a snack, condiment, garnish, and depending on spice level, a dare.

1 small white cabbage
rice wine vinegar
fresh ginger, finely diced
1 bunch of scallion, sliced to the top
Sirachi to taste
cayenne pepper to taste, I use about 3 tbs.
the largest size mason jar

Quarter the cabbage with a slice through the stem. Each quarter should have a piece of the center stem which you need to cut out and toss. Proceed to dice the cabbage into big bites. Cut your ginger and scallion. After everything is cut, begin to layer the cabbage with the scallion and the ginger in your large mason jar. Ideally you are looking for an even distribution of the three ingredients cause you won’t be able to stir the shiv once it’s in. Pack your cabbage tight. (pervert) There is more room in there than you think.

Now please forgive me for really inaccurate measurements. It’s hard to give precise measurements for this recipe because everyone is going to have slightly different amounts of liquid depending on how much cabbage you shoved in there, how much of the other ingredients you want, how pickled you want it to be, how spicy you want your ass, etc. You get me? But no worries, you can’t eff this up. Generally mix about 3 cups of vinegar with 1 cup of water and a quarter cup of sirachi. Mix well and pour into the jar. If you need more brine, create another batch with the same ratio. If you want extra spicy kimchi like this sweet baadasssss here, play with the amount of sirachi and/or add cayenne pepper. That’s what I do every time.

This is going to be ready to eat in about a day.

By Jessica | October 10, 2008 | Main Courses, Recipes | No comments

I am foreal sweatin this wok. You should def get one. And now that I’m getting the hang of it, I am woking up something major. Here is my weekly wok tip of the day (huh?): Cook fast and cook hot. Make sure your ingredients are ready to throw in cause when the wok calls, you answer gotdamnit.

Chinese Shrimp Stirfry with Ginger and Brown Rice

1/4 cup of fresh ginger (thin strips)
4 small hot, red peppers, sliced (add more or less depending on your fire mouth)
2 scallions, sliced, keep the bottom half separate from the top half, but you will be using both
1 carrot julienned
1 bunch of baby bok choy (can’t find baby bok choy? 1/2 of a mama), chop the stems, slice the greens and keep each pile separate
1/2 lb of medium-sized shrimp, peeled and de-shitted
1/8 cup of tamari (have I mentioned that tamari is the same as soy?)
2 cups of cooked brown rice
veg or peanut oil for frying
sesame oil for garnish

marinade for the shrimp:
1 tsp of chinese 5 spice
1 tbs of tamari
1 tbs of tomato paste

This serves 2 with 20 minutes of prep (if you’re peeling your own shrimp), and 10 minutes of cooking. (That’s 30 minutes total. der.)

First, prepare your shreemps. Peel and do what you gotta do. Mix the chinese spice, 1 tbs of tamari and tomato paste. Coat the shrimp and let it site while you chop the veg. When you’re all prepped, you’re ready to heat the wok.

Heat your wok, add the veg or peanut oil and heat till it smokes. Add the ginger and stir furiously. 30 seconds later, add the hot peppers (this may make you cough). 30 seconds later, add the whites of the bok choy. Your wok’s heat may have reduced a bit, so make sure it is as hot as it was when you started. When it is, add the carrots. 1 minute later, add the whites of the scallions. Now, add your cooked rice. Make sure your wok is hot, the rice should be crisping in some areas, but because you are stirring like mad, it won’t stick. Add the green of the bok choy and when wilted, create a whole in the middle of the grub and add the shrimp.

Stir the shrimp in the middle while it cooks. As soon as the shrimp is done (about 3 minutes), stir everything together, add the remaining tamari and dish up. Garnish with greens of the scallions and sesame oil. Eat with cold cold beer.

By Jessica | October 8, 2008 | Main Courses, Recipes, Snackin, Salads and Apps | 1 Comment

What do you get when you combine homemade dumplings and spring rolls, wine flowage, and tequila shots to boot? Our house on Saturday night. Oh. Yeah. And I’m not going to lie to you people, the food was banging. Even C said the food seemed easy enough to make at home and her culinary skills peak at choosing a stinky cheese and a dope wine – not that thats anything to laugh about. I can’t taste the difference between merlot and shiraz but give me a blind pork test and I’ll school you. Anyway, make these things at your house to impress your friends.

Steamed Pork and Scallion Dumplings

1/2 lb of ground pork
2 scallions, sliced
1/4 cup of tamari
3 tbs of sesame oil
dash of vinegar
fresh pepper
wanton wrappers
Makes about 12.

Mix the first 6 ingredients together. Drop a spoonful of mixture on to the center of the wrapper. Wet the exposed edges with water. Grab all the corners, bring to the middle and scrunch together. Steam for 20 minutes. Dipping sauces below.

Steamed Ginger and Beef Dumplings

1/2 lb of ground beef
1/4 cup of finely chopped ginger
1/4 cup of tamari
salt and fresh pepper
wanton wrappers
Makes about 12.

Mix all ingredients together. Drop a spoonful of mixture on to the center of the wrapper. Wet the exposed edges with water. Grab all the corners, bring to the middle and scrunch together. Steam for 20 minutes. Dipping sauces below.

Fried Cabbage, Shitake and Carrot Dumplings

1 carrot, diced
1/4 cup of white cabbage, shredded
1/4 cup of shitake mushrooms, diced
wanton wrappers
veg oil for frying
1/2 cup of water
Makes about 12.

Dice your carrot, cabbage and shrooms and combine in a bowl. Drop a tablespoon or so (you’ll begin to feel it out) onto the wrapper. Guess what you do here. That’s right. Wet the edges, grab the corners, bring together, scrunchy scrunchy. Here is what is different. Heat a frying pan and add a bit of veg oil for frying. When very hot, place your dumpling to fry for 5 minutes. When they have a nice crispy brown bottom, pour in a 1/2 cup of water and cover immediately to finish cooking through with a nice steam bath. Let it do its thing for 5 minutes. Should be ready at this time. Dipping sauces below.

Fresh Spring Rolls

1/2 carrot, julienned (that means cut into thin strips at about 3 inches)
2 scallions, cut down the middle middle and cut at about 3 inches
1/2 bunch of cilantro
1/2 bunch of chinese or (uh, american? or italian?.. dunno) basil
rice paper rolls

Cut your veggies and clean and dry your herbals. Add the rice paper to a bowl of very warm water and let it soften for about 30 seconds. Make sure you get all the edges under the water so it doesn’t roll up and crack. When the paper is soft, very gently pull it out and lay flat on a cutting board. Throw a bit of each of your ingredients into the center towards the bottom of the wrapper. Begin to roll the fatty towards the center. Halfway up, grab the right and the left and fold over the rolled half. Then continue to roll up. As soon as the paper dries, it will stick to itself. To serve, use a very sharp knife to cut 2 or 4 slices and stand up if possible.

Dippin Sauces

sirachi
wasabi paste with tamari
chopped ginger in tamari
sesame oil with red pepper flakes (or without)

Let me mention that I particularly like the wasabi with the beef and the sesame oil with the spring rolls. Let me also mention that these are damn easy to do, cheap as all get out and fun to eat. I am not afraid to cater your next dumpling affair. Gimme a date and a time and I’ll be there. You provide the tequila.

By Jessica | July 22, 2008 | Projects, Recipes | No comments

As a home-warming gift to ourselves, R and I got a sausage making attachment for my fancy mixer. We’ve done it twice now, the first time taking about 3 hours longer than our second attempt. What resulted were recipes for the following: Sun-dried Tomato and Jalapeño Chicken, Southwestern Pepper Pork, Scallion and English Cheddar Pork, Jerk Pork, and Bloody Mary Pork. Our second batch was good ol fashioned, Spicy Pork.

We bought chicken breast and pork butt from my second home, Los Paisanos. Cut them in large 2″ chunks and froze the meat, which makes it much easier to grind. Freezing the pork is most important because grinding fat, which is all up in the pork butt, is tough on the machine unless it’s as cold as possible.

We used all natural hog casing preserved in salt. The casings need to soak in cold water for 30 minutes prior to sliding onto the stuffer. The only part of this process that grossed me the hell out was using the casing. For some reason, the smell of the rawness, which is not strong at all, stuck in my nostrils for days. I washed my hands 72 times, but I would still wake up in the middle of the night smelling hog intestines. Will this stop me from becoming the Snausy queen of NY? No.

I don’t have explicit amounts cause we didn’t do it like that. We just perused the fridge, grabbed, chopped or grinded, and threw that shiv together. Here’s the list:

Chicken Sausage: Chicken breast, fresh jalapeño, oil-marinaded sun-dried tomatoes, lots of fresh garlic. All ingredients went through the grinder, pureing it all. No extra fat was added. This caused for a healthy, but crumbly sausage.

Southwestern Pepper Pork: B’s sis came through after her trip through the southwest. She brought a very spicy, sweet, and delish pepper relish. We folded tons of this stuff to the pork and a fresh chopped jalopeno.

Scallion and English Cheddar Pork: This was B’s idea and it was inspired by a traditional sour cream and onion dip. We grinded the scallion and cut the cheese in chunks so that when it cooked, the cheese would be gooey and melty. This was inspired by those crappy cheese stuffed hotdogs.

Jerk Pork: This was my second favorite sausage. But I’m not going to lie to you. The reason why I can’t claim it to be my fave is cause we used a jarred jerk. BUT, I’ll tell you why. This jerk seasoning is so damn delish, it’s the whole don’t fix-it-if-aint-broke thing. Do your self a favor and go buy Grace Jerk Seasoning. Anyway, we added a whole bunch of this spicy goodness to the pork, and damn, all jerked out.

Bloody Mary Pork: Now, this is my ultimate fave, mostly cause the ingredients were most original. We just added the best of what you would add to a Bloody Mary, besides the tomato juice: prepared horseradish, Tabasco, worchester sauce, green olives with pimento, spicy pickled green beans, salt and pepper.

All in all, the sausages were pretty good but they need some improvement. Since they were all pretty cumbly, we decided we would add more fat to the next batch. Also, the flavors could have been a bit more strong, so we’ll double that next time.

Good ol’ Spicy Pork: Our second batch we did a traditional spicy pork sausage with more fat. This time the sausages were perfect in texture, but again, we still need to add more flavor crystals. We added onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne, thyme, mustard powder, salt and fresh black pepper.

In conclusion, making sausage is not all that hard. Making it good, thats another thing. But watch out Jimmy Dean. I’mma comin.