Spicy baked pork sandwich
The 4th Earl of Sandwich did not invent the sandwich as the practice of placing meat between slices of bread is much, much older than him. In the English language, however, the first time the meat-between-bread food item was mentioned in writing, it was attributed to the 4th Earl of Sandwich who preferred to eat his meals that way so that his card-playing wouldn’t be interrupted.
Over the centuries, the very concept of what a sandwich is evolved. Not only does it contain “meat” which can also be poultry or seafood, it also often includes salad greens and cheese among the filling. These days, with vegetarianism and veganism being fashionable, there are even vegetable-only fillings for sandwiches.
All the time that I was growing up, sandwich filling seemed to have an order in which they were placed on the bottom slice (or half) of the bread — spread, greens, meat, cheese (if using), tomato and onion slices. Except for burgers, the meat almost always consisted of thin slices of cold meat like ham, salami, bologna… It was the same everywhere as though there was an unwritten but strictly followed ritual for sandwich making. Very restrictive, I know, but this is Asia and we are a rice eating people. It was only during the last few decades when the popularity of fast food chains shot up that sandwiches became truly mainstream.
The truth, of course, is that there is no rule in sandwich making except that the finished product is bread slices with filling in between. What kind of bread should be used, and what the filling should be, well, anything goes. Think of the Vietnamese bahn mi and the fresh herbs that go into it. Neither is there a proper order by the which the fillings should be piled on the bread.
So, throwing away all the “rules” about sandwich making, I made these spicy baked pork sandwiches. The shredded lettuce was placed on top of the pork instead of the more traditional meat-on-top-of-greens arrangement and, instead of the very common tomato and onion slices, I used thinly sliced fresh basil and crisp onion slices. (more…)
Bangus (milkfish) and kinugoshi (silken) tofu with three sauces
It has always been my opinion that to become a good cook, one has to be confident about his skills and taste. And by that, I don’t mean professional training. No, not at all. Rather, I mean the ability to think outside the box, to never feel limited by the lack of access to certain ingredients and to never feel insecure for falling short of standards set by other people. In my opinion, one only needs to follow personal standards, not others’, AND to keep raising those standards as one grows and learns more.
It is a philosophy that I not only preach but also religiously follow. As a consequence, I rarely abide by generally accepted rules and formulas. For instance, although jam is normally spread on bread, I don’t find it strange to use jam as an ingredient for a sauce. While balsamic vinegar is widely regarded as an ingredient for salad dressing, I like using it as a braising liquid for meat. My daughter Sam has the same attitude. Just because a bottle says “salad dressing” doesn’t mean it can only go into a salad. She discovered long ago that tart salad dressings are also great as dipping sauces.
All that should give you a pretty good idea about the sauce for this dish — fried cubes of silken tofu and bangus (milkfish) belly fillets smothered with a sauce made with pineapple jam, mango ketchup, chili garlic sauce and sweet chili sauce. I normally cook only a cup of rice for Speedy and myself but, with this dish, Speedy felt we should have had more rice. It was so good. (more…)
Deciphering tofu labels: Kinugoshi and Momen
For the longest time, Masoya was my preferred brand of tofu. If it wasn’t in stock when I went grocery shopping, I wouldn’t buy tofu at all. Then, Masoya became harder and harder to find in the grocery until, finally, I decided to try another brand. I went through all the available brands and chose what appeared to be the cleanest, the smoothest and the freshest.
Still, it wasn’t an easy decision. I couldn’t make out the brand which was in Japanese characters. The labels were different too. I had been used to seeing “firm” and “silken” tofu and I wasn’t sure what kinugoshi and momen meant. But I had been hankering for tofu so I bought two packs of kinugoshi tofu and a pack of momen tofu. (more…)
Soy-orange chicken with walnuts
Lemon and pineapple often figure in Asian stir fried dishes. Oranges make a more rare appearance perhaps because orange segments easily disintegrate over high heat and constant stirring. But that can be prevented, or at least minimized, by adding the orange segments at the last minute.
The previous post about how to segment an orange was a prelude to this recipe — a stir-fried chicken dish marinated then alternately braised and stir fried in light soy sauce and fresh orange juice until the natural sugars have caramelized. Vegetables, the orange segments and toasted walnuts are added toward the end of cooking to add texture, color and a bright fresh appearance and flavor to the dish. (more…)
How to segment an orange
Segmenting an orange can mean either of three things. First, you peel the fruit by pulling off the skin then you you separate the segments by prying them apart. Then, you cut through the pith and eat the flesh inside. Depending on the variety of orange the pith can be thin and fine that it is edible.
Second, you cut the orange — rind and all — into wedges. You suck the juice while gently tugging at the flesh with your teeth to get as much of the pulp bits into your mouth.
Third, you cut off the rind and pith then you make incisions in the shape of an inverted “V” between the parts of the pith that separate each segment so that you get slivers of juicy flesh with no pith at all.
The first two are quite self-explanatory (I don’t know of anyone who can’t manage both procedures without an illustrated guide) but the third may require a little practice. (more…)
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