Tag: appetizer
Yakitori
Yakitori
Yakitori are skewered parts of chicken sold as street food all over Japan. And by parts, I mean every part. Popular types of yakitori include chicken and green onion(negima), chicken thigh(momo), gizzard(hasami), breast(sasami), chicken skin(tori), wing(tebesaki), butt(bonjiri), heart(hatsu), liver(reba), gizzard(sunagimo), chicken cartilage(nankotsu), and intestines(shiro). The parts are skewered and grilled over small box charcoal grills. They are either brushed with a sweet glaze called tare sauce, or simply seasoned with sea salt. Yakitori isn’t limited to just chicken. Pork belly, quail eggs, duck heart, shishito peppers, beef tongue, enoki mushrooms wrapped in bacon, bacon wrapped asparagus, shiitake mushrooms, chorizo, deep fried tofu, and chicken meatballs, are all popular varieties of yakitori; just to name a few.If you don’t have a grill, you can make the yakitori under your oven’s broiler. Place the oven’s rack at the very top. When skewering up the yakitori, it is important to make sure that all the pieces of meat are uniform; about 1”. Place the yakitori on a rack on a baking pan lined in foil. Broil for 3 minutes a side. Then brush the top with the yakitori sauce. Broil for 2 minutes. Flip. Brush with more yakitori sauce. Broil for 2 more minutes. Brush with more sauce. Yada, yada, yada…They all take about 10 minutes in total.
Servings: 4
Equipment
- 20-8” wooden skewers, soaked in water for 60 minutes
Ingredients
Yakitori Sauce
- 2/3 cup soy sauce
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup sake
- 1/3 cup mirin
Yakitori Proteins
- 2 boneless skinless chicken thighs cut into 1” cubes
- 8 chicken livers cut into 1” pieces
- 16 duck hearts
- 3/4 lb pork belly skinned; cut into 1” cubes
- 20 quail eggs
- 8 green onions cut into 1 1/2” pieces
Instructions
- Bring all of the yakitori sauce ingredients to a boil over medium heat for 10 minutes until it is thick.
- Set the sauce aside and let cool.
- Skewer up all of the proteins with 4 pieces of meat per skewer. Put a piece of green onion in between every piece of chicken thigh and piece of pork belly.
- Turn on your oven’s broiler. Place the oven’s rack on the very top, closest to the burner. Place the yakitori on a rack on a baking pan lined with foil.
- Cook the yakitori for 3 minutes a side.
- Brush the top side with the yakitori sauce. Broil for 2 minutes.
- Flip the yakitori. Brush with more sauce. Broil for another 2 minutes.
- Brush all of the yakitori with more of the sauce.
Chifrijo
Chifrijo
Chifrijo is a popular Costa Rican bar snack consisting roasted and fried pork belly over black beans and rice. It’s topped with pico de gallo, diced avocado, and salsa Lizano. Even better, it is scooped up with tortilla chips. This recipe has a lot of steps; all which are fairly easy. When preparing for a recipe that has multiple things going on at once like Chifrijo, the best thing you can do is first gather all of the ingredients for each thing you are making. This will cut down time running back and forth looking for things. Know how long it will take to make what you’re cooking. In the chifrijo’s case, the pork belly takes the longest: 100 minutes for roasting and 5 minutes for frying. While the belly is roasting, you can prepare the beans, rice, and pico de gallo. Lastly, but also firstly: pack a bowl and relax.
Servings: 4
Ingredients
Pork Belly
- 2 lbs pork belly
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- cracked black pepper
- vegetable oil for frying
Pico de Gallo
- 2 medium tomatoes diced
- 1/4 large white onion diced
- 5 garlic cloves minced
- 1 jalapeño diced
- 1/4 cup cilantro chopped
- 1 lime juiced
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
Costa Rican Black Beans
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 stalk celery finely diced
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 2 tbsp Salsa Lizano
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 14 oz canned black beans with it’s juices
The Rest
- 2 cups white rice steamed
- 1 avocado diced
- tortilla chips
- Salsa Lizano
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Season the pork belly with soy sauce and cracked black pepper. Place the pork belly on a rack on a baking sheet lined in foil. Poor some water in the bottom of the pan.
- Roast the pork belly for 10 minutes. Turn the heat down to 325 degrees. Roast for 90 minutes. Let cool completely.
- Chop into bite size pieces.
- Heat up 1/4” deep of vegetable oil in a large sauté pan over medium high heat. Fry the pork belly until it is browned, about 4-5 minutes.
- Drain on paper towel.
- While the pork belly is roasting, combine all of the pico de gallo ingredients in a bowl. Refrigerate until ready for use.
- Also, while the pork belly is roasting, heat up olive oil in a pot over medium heat. Sauté the the celery and garlic for 5 minutes.
- Add in the cumin, salsa Lizano, and black beans.
- Cover and simmer over medium low heat for 20 minutes.
Assembly
- Place a scoop of rice in the center of a bowl. Scoop a ladle of beans over the rice. Place a scoop of the fried pork belly in the center. Distribute a scoop of pico de gallo over the pork belly. Add some diced avocado. Drizzle some more salsa Lizano. Serve with tortilla chips.
Stuffed Sweet Peppers
Stuffed Sweet Peppers
I really like mini sweet peppers. They are even better stuffed with pork. This Vietnamese appetizer only takes 15 minutes of prep work and 15 minutes baking time. The dipping sauce is very basic, but has the perfect balance of sweet, sour, and spicy, plus the umami from the fish sauce.
Ingredients
- mini sweet peppers cut in half
Pork Filling
- 1 lb ground pork
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 1 1/2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp fish sauce
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp salt
Nuac Cham Dipping Sauce
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/8 up fish sauce
- 5 garlic cloves chopped
- 1/2 lemon juiced
- 2 birds eye chilies finely diced; or 1 tbsp crushed red pepper
Instructions
- Mix all of the pork stuffing ingredients together.
- Take a little bit of the pork and stuffed it in the halved sweet pepper.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Drizzle a little olive oil on a baking sheet. Place all of the stuffed peppers on the baking sheet.
- Bake for 15 minutes. Let rest before serving.
- While the stuffed peppers are resting, dissolve the sugar into the water in a small pot. Bring to a boil. Turn off the heat. Stir in the rest of the ingredients. Let cool.
