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Hmong Smoked Pork with Ginger and Lemongrass
Hmong Smoked Pork with Ginger and Lemongrass
Earlier I did a Hmong recipe for smoked beef. You can do the same smoking process with pork. I used pork sirloin since it is minimally fatty and inexpensive. The pork is cured overnight and smoked for 90 minutes over mesquite wood. The pork gets shredded in a food processor, then mixed with ginger, lemongrass, chilies, cilantro, and green onions. This flavorful, porky mix gets topped over steamed rice. The heat from the rice melts any fat in the meat as it permeates the ginger and lemongrass. FYI, this is also one of the best pork jerky recipes that you’ll ever eat.
Equipment
- Electric Smoker
- meat hooks
- food processor
Ingredients
- 4 lbs pork sirloin sliced 1/4” thick
- 1 tbsp pink curing salts
- 1 tsp mushroom seasoning
- 1/2 cup ginger minced
- 1/2 cup lemongrass finely chopped
- 1 cup cilantro chopped
- 1 cup green onions chopped
- 5 Thai chilies finely chopped
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tsp salt
Wood Chips
- mesquite wood chips
Instructions
- Mix together the curing salts and mushroom seasoning.
- Marinate the pork with the cure seasoning overnight.
- Put the pork slices on a meat hooks.
- Preheat your smoker to 250 degrees. Hang the pork on the top rack in your smoker.
- Smoke for 90 minutes. Remove from the smoker.
- Place the pork on a baking sheet. Bake in a 400 degree preheated oven for 8 minutes a side to further dry out the pork.
- Place the pork in a food and pulse until chopped. Place the pork in a large bowl.
- Place the ginger, lemongrass, and chilies in the food processor and pulse a few times.
- Mix together the pork, lemongrass/ginger blend, cilantro, green onions, fish sauce, and salt.
Frogmore Stew
Frogmore Stew
Don’t let the name fool you. There’s no frogs in this stew, even though I think that would enhance the flavor. This really isn’t even a stew, but a seafood boil. Frogmore stew is indigenous to South Carolina. It is named after a low country fishing community on Saint Helena Island near Beaufort and Hilton Head, South Carolina. This seafood boil contains potatoes, corn on the cob, shrimp, and andouille sausage simmered in a heavily seasoned pot of water. The Frogmore stew has 5 minutes of prep time and is ready in 15 minutes.
Ingredients
- 1 lb red potatoes
- 3 ears corn cut into 3 pieces each
- 3 andouille sausage cut into 3 pieces each
- 1 tbsp old bay seasoning
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 lemon juiced
- water enough to cover the ingredients
- 1 lb 16/20 ct shrimp
Garnish
- 1/2 bunch parsley chopped
Instructions
- Line a large stock pot with the potatoes, corn, andouille, and all of the seasonings. Fill with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Add in the shrimp and simmer for 5 minutes.
Pine Nut Encrusted Catfish
Pine Nut Encrusted Catfish
Pine nut catfish is a popular recipe of indigenous tribes of New Mexico and Arizona. The pine nuts get toasted and ground with cornmeal, flour, and spices. Then catfish is dredged in the mix and fried in oil. If pine nuts are too expensive, walnuts or pecans are a suitable substitute.
Equipment
- Spice grinder
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup pine nuts
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1/2 cup corn meal
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/4 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp salt
- vegetable oil for frying
Instructions
- Dry toast the pine nuts in a small skillet over medium heat for 2 minutes until golden brown. Let cool.
- Grind the pine nuts in a spice grinder. Mix the ground pine nuts with the flour, cornmeal, cayenne, cumin, and salt.
- Dredge each of the catfish fillets in the pine nut/flour mix.
- Heat up a 1/2” of vegetable oil in a sauté pan over medium high heat. Place the catfish into the oil.
- Fry for 4-5 minutes a side until crispy.
- Place the catfish on a rack to drain any excess oil.
