Tag: main course
Bang Bang Chicken
Bang Bang Chicken
You may have seen bang bang chicken on Chinese restaurant menus. What they will bring you is chopped up chunks of chicken breast that been battered and deep fried covered in a chili sauce. This couldn’t be farther away from what real bang bang chicken is. Bang bang chicken gets it’s name from how the chicken was traditionally processed after being steamed: hammered with a wooden baton; creating a banging sound. You can use a mallet or a rolling pin the pound the chicken. Or you can completely skip this step and shredded the chicken with two forks.The sauce used in this dish has many complex flavors: sweet, spicy, savory, nutty, with a slight sourness from the chianking vinegar. After the chicken has been bang banged and shredded, the sauce is poured over. The chicken is garnished with green onions and even more chili oil. This chicken is extremely tender with a lot of spice. It’s currently eating the lining of my stomach as I type this. It’s 100% worth the agony.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast
- 2 green onions
- 1 tsp salt
Sauce
- 4 tbsp light soy sauce
- 2 tbsp Chinese sesame paste
- 2 tbsp Sichuan chili oil
- 1 1/2 tbsp Chianking vinegar
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 2 tsp ginger grated
- 1/2 tsp Sichuan peppercorns ground
Garnish
- green onions chopped
- Sichuan chili oil
Instructions
- Mix together the sauce ingredients. Set aside.
- Place a plate inside your steamer. Create a bed out of the green onions.
- Place the chicken on top of the green onions. Season with salt.
- Steam for 30 minutes. Cut into the thickest part of the chicken to check and see if it’s cooked all the way through.
- Let the chicken cool. Using a mallet, hammer down the chicken.
- Shred the chicken with 2 forks.
- Plate the chicken. Pour the sauce over the chicken. Garnish with chopped green onions. If you want more spice, drizzle more chili oil over the chicken.
How to make Chili Oil in an Instant Pot
Ever eat at a Chinese restaurant and they have that chili oil at the table? Then you end up putting it on everything because it’s so damn good. Well now it’s time to learn how to make it for a fraction of the price of the store bought brands. Making this couldn’t be easier using the Instant Pot. The most important thing in making this chili oil is to not burn the ingredients. You want to keep the oil between 225 and 250 degrees. The Instant Pot has a custom temperature setting which makes making this street free. You can still make this on a stove top if you don’t have an Instant Pot. Just make sure to use a cane thermometer to make sure the oil doesn’t get too hot. If the ingredients burn, you will have to start over.Most cultures have some sort of chili oil in their cuisine, all made very similarly. This recipe is for a Chinese style chili oil, so I used ingredients in Chinese cooking. If you were to make a chili oil for Italian cuisine, you would you’d Italian crushed chili flakes and maybe some garlic and dried herbs in the oil. So experiment with making different oils. The chili flake is always the main ingredient, followed by aromatics steeping in the oil.
Ingredients
- 2 cups vegetable oil
- 1 large cinnamon stick
- 5 star anise
- 3 tbsp Szechuan peppercorns
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 cup crushed Szechuan chili flakes
Instructions
- Set your Instant Pot to the sauté function. Choose custom temp. Set to 230 degrees, Add your oil, cinnamon stick, star anise, peppercorns, and bay leaves to the Instant Pot. Cook for 30 minutes, giving an occasional stir. Let cool for 5 minutes.
- Put the crushed chili flakes in a mason jar. Take a small piece of cheese cloth and put it over the jar, with a rubber band around it to hold in place.
- Take out the cinnamon stick and bay leaves. Pour the oil into the mason jar. The cheese cloth will catch all of the peppercorns and star anise..
- Screw on the cover and let cool to room temp. Refrigerate up to 6 months.
Carbonara Toast
Carbonara Toast
When you think of carbonara, you definetily don’t think of Korea or Japan. Carbonara toast happens to be really popular in these two countries. Instead of having these ingredients on noodles, it’s topped on bread and broiled. The honey butter adds a nice sweetness to the toast. The Japanese mayo comes in a tube, which is a really important factor in the preparation. Squirt the mayo around the perimeter of the toast creates a barrier, holding the cracked egg in the center. It also bakes into the bread, creating a richness to the toast. Broil the carbonara toast for 5 minutes. Turn the broiler off, but allow the toast to finish cooking in the oven for 2 more minutes. Garnish with chopped parsley and more cheese.
Ingredients
- 2 slices bread
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp honey
- Japanese mayo
- 2 large eggs
- cracked black pepper
- 2 strips bacon crumbled
- 2 tbsp parmesan or mozzarella cheese
- 1 tbsp parsley chopped
Instructions
- Place the bread on a rack on a baking sheet. Mix together the butter and honey. Spread the honey butter on both sides of the bread. Squirt the Japanese mayo around the perimeter of the bread.
- Crack an egg into the center of the bread. Season with cracked black pepper.
- Top the eggs with crumbled bacon and cheese.
- Place the pan on the middle rack in a cold oven. Turn on the broiler. Broil for 5 minutes. Turn off the broiler, but allow the toast to cook for 2 more minutes in the oven. Garnish with chopped parsley.
Pork Tocino
Pork Tocino
Tocino is cured pork, chicken, or beef. It is a staple in Filipino cuisine, mostly eaten for breakfast with garlic fried rice and a couple of sunny side up eggs. Tocino is traditionally cured with saltpeter, a preservative, the same ingredient used to cure corned beef. This particular recipe is salt and sugar cured, without any preservatives. The pineapple juice is used as a natural tenderizer. Pork shoulder is the best cut to use for making tocino. Pork loin and tenderloin is too lean; pork belly is too fatty. The pork shoulder should be cut against the grain, somewhere between 1/8”-1/4” thick. The pork only needs a day to marinate. When ready to cook, the pork is braised in water until all of the liquid is absorbed. It is then pan fried in cooking oil, allowing the sugars to caramelize. Any pork that isn’t cooked should be frozen in freezer bags for later use.
Ingredients
- 1 lb pork shoulder sliced 1/8”-1/4” thick
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup pineapple juice
- 1/2 tbsp salt
- 1 tbsp garlic minced
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 drop red food coloring
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
Instructions
- Mix together the sugar, pineapple juice, salt, garlic, pepper, and red food coloring.
- Add in the pork, making sure that all of the pieces are evenly coated. Marinate overnight.
- In a small pot, add in the pork and water. Simmer on medium heat for 10-15 minutes, until all of the liquid is cooked off.
- Remove the pork from the pot. Add in the vegetable oil. Add the pork to the oil. Cook for 5 minutes, allowing the sugars from the pork to caramelize.
