Tag: pork
Lu Rou Fan (Braised Pork Belly and Rice)
Lu Rou Fan (Braised Pork Belly and Rice)
Lu Rou Fan is Taiwanese style pork belly with shiitake mushrooms, crispy fried shallots, and hard boiled eggs in a soy sauce based braising liquid; served with a blanched green veggie, pickled shallots or mustard greens, and steamed rice. This is a heavy dish, so the pickled shallots help cut through the richness. If pork belly is too fatty for your taste, you can substitute pork shoulder and still receive great results.
Servings: 4
Ingredients
Meat and Marinade
- 1 lb pork belly sliced into small pieces
- 1 tbsp shaoxing cooking wine
- 1/2 tbsp mushroom dark soy sauce
Crispy Shallots
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 cups shallots thinly sliced
- 4 garlic cloves thinly sliced
Braising Liquid
- 2 tbsp shaoxing cooking wine
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp mushroom dark soy sauce
- 1 tbsp rock sugar
- 2 star anise
- 1 cinnamon stick
Other Ingredients and Toppings
- 8 dried shiitake mushrooms
- 4 hard boiled eggs
- your favorite green vegetable blanched
- pickled shallots or pickled mustard greens
- steamed rice for serving
Instructions
- Marinate the pork belly with the shaoxing cooking wine and mushroom dark soy sauce gor 30 minutes. Set aside.
- Rehydrate the dried mushrooms with 2 cups of boiling water for 20 minutes. Thinly slice the mushrooms. Save the liquid.
- Heat up cooking oil in a large sauté pan over medium high heat. Sauté the shallots for 8 minutes until they start to slightly change color.
- Add in the garlic and cook for 3-4 more minutes until crispy. Drain grease on paper towel and set aside.
- In the same pan, sauté the pork belly until browned for 5-6 minutes.
- Pour in the shaoxing cooking wine and scrape up any brown bits on the bottom of the pan. Then add in the soy sauces, star anise, cinnamon stick, rock sugar, and crispy fried shallots. Cook for a minute.
- Pour in the saved mushroom liquid. Bring to a boil. Cover. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for an hour.
- Add in the hard boiled eggs. Place the cover back on and continue to braise for 30 more minutes.
Pickled Shallots
Pickled shallots are the candy of pickling. They add a sweet and sourness to whatever they accompany. They are great to serve with rich pork dishes such as lu rou fan; on top of banh mi sandwiches and gua bao, and many more Asian dishes. The pickled shallots will keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup shallots thinly sliced
- 1/4 tsp Sichuan peppercorns
- 3 tbsp rice vinegar
- 2 tbsp water
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
- Add the Sichuan peppercorns to a cold small pot. Turn the heat to medium and dry toast for 1 minute.
- Pour in the rice vinegar, water, sugar, and salt. Once it starts to boil, take the pot off the heat.
- Placd the shallots in a small jar and pour the hot brine over them. Let cool at room temp, then place in the refrigerator to cool completely. They will then be ready to serve.
Sandwich Olimpico
Sandwich Olimpico
A sandwich the size of Mount Olympus? Yes. Yes it is. Sandwich Olimpico is a popular triple decker sandwich found all over Uruguay in markets, bars, and restaurants. This beast of a sandwich contains ham, cheese, roasted red peppers, lettuce, tomato, hard boiled eggs, on 4 mayo lathered slices of bread. It is then gently pressed to make it possible to fit a bite of everything in your mouth because it is literally 4”-5” high. You honestly won’t need any side with this sandwich. It is that filling.
Ingredients
- 4 slices white bread
- 3 tbsp mayonnaise
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 3 slices ham
- shredded lettuce
- 2 slices swiss cheese
- roasted red pepper cut into strips
- 2 hard boiled eggs sliced
- 1/2 small tomato sliced
Instructions
- Gather all of the ingredients to make sandwich assembly easy. Also, mix the mayo and lemon juice together.
- Spread some mayo on one slice of bread. Place the ham, followed by the lettuce, on the bread.
- Spread some mayo on another slice of bread. Place the bread face down on the lettuce. Top the bread with the Swiss cheese, followed by the roasted red peppers.
- Spread some mayo on another slice of bread. Place the bread mayo side up on top of the roasted red peppers. Place slices of hard boiled eggs on the bread, followed by the tomato.
- Spread the rest of the mayo on the last slice of bread and place that on top of the tomatoes.
- Gently press down on the sandwich with both hands, keeping it together without the ingredients falling out the sides.
Igado (Pork and Liver Stew)
Igado (Pork and Liver Stew)
Igado is pork and liver braised in vinegar and soy sauce with peas and bell peppers. It has similar flavor components and preparation as adobo; where you cook off the raw vinegar flavor without stirring for the first 5 minutes. While liver might be a turn off to some, I’ve always been a huge fan. Liver happens to be more nutrient dense than muscle meat; being high in vitamins A, D, E, folic acid, and iron. It also costs around $2/lbs. For the pork, I used pork sirloin. It is an inexpensive cut that is still tender. You can substitute pork shoulder or belly. While the dish traditionally uses beef liver, I chose to double up the pork love and use pork liver. It is slightly milder in flavor compared to beef. Make sure to cut both the pork and liver in equally sized pieces.
Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 large red bell pepper sliced into strips
- 1 lb pork sirloin cut into strips
- 1 medium onion thinly sliced
- 6 garlic cloves chopped
- 1/2 cup vinegar
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 lb pork liver cut into strips
- 1/2 cup peas
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Marinate the pork with the onions, garlic, vinegar, soy sauce, bay leaves, and black pepper for 20 minutes.
- Drain the marinade from the pork and save.
- Heat up the cooking oil in a large sauté pan over medium high heat. Sauté the red bell pepper for 1 minute. Set aside in a bowl.
- In the same pan, add in the pork and onions. Sauté for 5 minutes.
- Pour in the saved marinade. Simmer for 5 minutes without stirring.
- Pour in the water. Bring to a boil. Cover. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for 25 minutes.
- Add in the liver. Simmer uncovered for 5 minutes.
- Stir in the peas. Continue simmering for 2 minutes.
- Add in the bell peppers and season with salt. Cook for 1 more minute.
