Tag: pork
Green Chorizo
Green Chorizo
I never heard of green chorizo until very recently. I was shopping at my favorite Latin market, El Burrito Mercado, in their meat department. I stumbled across packages of green chorizo that they make in house. Sure, why not. Let’s try it. So I bought a few links and cooked them up at home. To quote the great Ric Flair, “Wooooo!” They were unbelievably flavorful and spicier than I expected. A lot more spicy than any red chorizo I’ve had. So, being a sausage maker, I had to learn how to make them.Green chorizo gets it’s color from all of the green ingredients: roasted poblanos, serranos, cilantro, parsley, and green onions. All of these ingredients get chopped in a food processor until a chunky green paste is formed. The paste is then mixed into ground pork. And just like that, you have bulk green chorizo. If you want the sausage stuffed into casings, you will need a sausage stuffer. The green chorizo is great with eggs and even better in tacos.
Equipment
- food processor
Ingredients
- 5 lbs ground pork
- 4 poblano peppers
- 4 serrano peppers
- 1 bunch cilantro
- 1 bunch parsley
- 1 bunch green onions
- 1 head garlic peeled and minced
- 1 tbsp ground cumin
- 1 tbsp Mexican oregano
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar vinegar
- pork casings for making links
Instructions
Bulk Green Chorizo
- Turn on your oven’s broiler. Place the poblano peppers on a rack on a baking sheet.
- Broil for 6 minutes a side until the pepper is charred.
- Place the peppers in a bowl with a cover for 10 minutes. This will sweat the skins off of the poblanos.
- Place all of the ingredients in a food processor. Pulse until the ingredients are turned into a chunky paste.
- Pour the green mix over the ground pork.
- Mix thoroughly.
Green Chorizo Links
- Pipe the green chorizo through your sausage stuffer. Use pork casings for regular sized links and lamb casings for breakfast sized links. Twist to 6” long.
- Let the links sit for 2 hours before cutting.
Green Chorizo Tacos
- Place the bulk chorizo in a skillet over medium high heat.
- Brown for 8 minutes.
- Serve on corn tortillas. Top with onions, cilantro, and your favorite salsa.
Lion’s Head Soup
Lion’s Head Soup
Lion’s head soup is the perfect comfort food for cold winter months. Not only is this soup super tasty, but it comes together in about 30 minutes. The soup is simply sautéed cabbage in chicken stock with lion’s head meatballs. These particular meatballs for the soup are dryer in preparation than the lion’s head meatballs you steam and eat as a main course. There is no water in the meatball mix and 1 less egg.
Servings: 4
Ingredients
Lion’s Head Meatballs
- 1 lb ground pork
- 4 tbsp shaoxing cooking wine
- 3 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 3 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 3 green onions
- 1 cup water chestnuts finely chopped
- 1 large egg beaten
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
Soup
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1/2 small green cabbage roughly chopped
- 6 cups chicken stock
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
Garnish
- green onions chopped
- chili oil optional
Instructions
- Mix together the meatball ingredients. Set aside.
- Heat up cooking oil in a large stock pot over medium high heat. Sauté the cabbage for 5 minutes until it is slightly wilted.
- Pour in the chicken stock and soy sauce. Bring to a boil.
- Using a cookie dropper, drop the meatballs into the soup. Cover. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Turn off the heat. Drizzle in the sesame oil.
Pork Gyoza
Pork Gyoza
Pork is the most popular filling for gyoza. They assemble they exact same way as the shrimp gyoza I prepared in a previous post. Pork gyoza will require 2 more minutes of cooking to properly cook the filling all the way through. Serve the gyoza with a simple dipping sauce of soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sesame oil; chili oil if you are looking for a little heat.
Servings: 50 gyoza
Ingredients
- gyoza wrappers
- water
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
Filling
- 3/4 lb ground pork
- 1 cup Chinese chives finely chopped
- 1/2 cup carrots finely grated
- 1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 1/2 tbsp sake
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
Dumpling Sauce
- 3 tbsp soy sauce
- 3 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tsp sesame oil or chili oil
Instructions
- Mix together all of the filling ingredients.
- Lay out the gyoza wrappers. Place a heaping tsp of the filling in the center. Wet the edges around the filling with water on you fingertips.
- Fold the dumplings in half and crimp.
- Starting from the bottom right edge, fold over 1/8” of the edge and crimp. Do this 6 times in total across the gyoza’s edge.
- Do this until all of the filling is used up. You should yield about 50 gyoza. Freeze what you aren’t going to immediately use on a baking sheet. Then store in a freezer bag.
- Heat up the cooking oil in a sauté pan over medium heat. Place the gyoza into the pan. Cook for 4 minutes.
- Pour a 1/3 cup of water into the pan. Place a cover on the pan and cook until the water has evaporated.
