Tag: main course
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.
Lebanese Cabbage Rolls
Lebanese Cabbage Rolls
I’m a huge fan of cabbage rolls. These Lebanese-style cabbage rolls are called Malfouf in Arabic. They are very similar in preparation to Lebanese stuffed grape leaves. The filling is a mix of ground beef, rice, and 7 spice. The rolls are simmered below a layer of tomatoes, garlic, with some lemon juice, until the rice is cooked, creating a garlicky, tomatoey, lemon sauce.
Ingredients
- 1 head green cabbage
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp Lebanese 7 spice
- 1 cup uncooked short grain rice
- 10 garlic cloves
- 2 tomatoes sliced
- 1 tbsp ground cumin
- 4 cups water
- 2 lemons juiced
Instructions
- Heat up oil in a sauté pan over medium high heat. Brown the ground beef.
- Turn off the heat. Stir in the rice, salt, pepper, and 7 spice. Set aside and let cool.
- Bring a pot of water to boil. Core out the cabbage and carefully remove the leaves. Drop the cabbage leaves in the water for a minute to make pliable. Remove from the pot.
- Place a couple of tbsps of the beef/rice in a cabbage leaf.
- Fold in the sides and roll up. Do this until all of the ground beef is used up.
- Line the bottom of a pot with any extra cabbage leaves. Place the rolls tightly in the pot.
- Cover the top with the tomatoes and garlic.
- Place any remaining rolls on the top. Season with cumin. Pour in 4 cups of water into the pot; enough to cover the rolls. Cover and simmer over medium heat for 30 minutes.
- Squeeze in the lemon juice. Cover and simmer over low heat for 45 minutes.
- Uncover and let rest for 30 minutes.
Reuben Kielbasa
Reuben Kielbasa
I give all the credit in this creation to the Lord Cheeba, as it guides me to come up with these left field ideas of culinary masterpieces. And here it is: the Reuben Kielbasa. This sausage consists of homemade ground corned beef chuck(because brisket is too expensive to grind), sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, and pumpernickel breadcrumbs. The sausage is twisted into kielbasa-sized rings, then hung and smoked for 4 hours. From here, you can grill or pan fry the kielbasa. It can be eaten with sautéed cabbage and fried eggs. It is great on a bun with even more sauerkraut and thousand island dressing. The kielbasa can even be used on a charcuterie board. Anything you don’t plan on consuming in the next week should be wrapped in freezer paper and frozen down.
Equipment
- large bin for brining
- meat grinder
- blender
- sausage stuffer
- Electric Smoker
- meat hooks
Ingredients
- 1 gallon water
- 1 cup salt
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 tsp pink curing salts
- 8 garlic cloves crushed
- 1 tbsp coriander seeds
- 1 tbsp black peppercorns
- 1 tbsp allspice berries
- 1 tbsp whole cloves
- 4 bay leaves
- 5 lbs chuck roast
- 16 oz sauerkraut drained
- 8 oz Swiss cheese small cubes
- 1 small rye or pumpernickel loaf processed into breadcrumbs
- 1 bunch parsley chopped
- hog casings
Wood Chips
- hickory
Instructions
- Mix the brining ingredients together in a large bin.
- Add in the chuck. Brine for 10 days.
- Cut up the chuck into cubes for grinding.
- Grind the corned beef Chuck on a coarse ground grinding plate. Thoroughly mix in the sauerkraut, swiss, pumpernickel breadcrumbs, and chopped parsley.
- Squirt the sausage into the hog casings. Twist the sausage into bologna sized rings; about 1lb each.
- Preheat your smoker to 250 degrees. Hang the kielbasa by meat hooks from the top rack in your smoker. Add the wood chips. All the wood chips to ignite for 10 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 160 degrees.
- Smoke the kielbasa for 4 hours.
- Immediately place the kielbasa in an ice water bath to stop the cooking process. Drain and freeze whatever you don’t plan on cooking in the next week.
