Category Archives: Recipes

Asian Style Pork Ribs – gluten-free

Posted on April 16, 2011 by Nowfeedme| 1 Comment
Asian style pork ribs

Asian style pork ribs

About a week ago I went to the market looking for cuts of beef to cook some steaks and was shocked at the prices, even for the cuts that I would not consider very good for steak. Seeing that pork on the other hand was much more affordable my taste quickly changed to craving pork instead of beef. Funny how that works. I picked up a 5 lb tray of pork ribs, put half in the freezer, and made the other half for dinner. I don’t really follow any recipes and sort of throw things together but here is my best recollection of what I did. I think I first learned how to make this from theallamericanchinesecookbook.com and simply made some minor changes to suit my taste.

Pork ribs 2-3 lbs
Garlic 4-5 cloves minced
Ginger 1″ minced
Green onions 2 sliced
Gluten-free tamari 1 cup
Dry sherry or Chinese cooking wine 1/4 cup
Sesame oil 1/8 cup
Ketchup 1/4 cup
Chili pepper flakes 1 tsp or to taste
Brown sugar 1 Tbsp
Toasted sesame seeds 1 tsp

Put all ingredients except the pork in a 1 gallon ziploc bag. Seal the bag and shake vigorously from side to side to mix it all up. Add the pork to the bag, seal, and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 4-6 hours, or overnight. Turn the bag over a couple of times a few hours apart if you remember to spread the marinade around.

Remove the bag from the fridge about 20-30 minutes before cooking to bring it to room temperature. Pre-heat the oven to 325 F. Remove the pork from the bag (or whatever you used to marinate in) and reserve the marinade in a bowl. Cover a roasting pan with foil if desired – it makes it easier to clean – and put the pork in the oven. After one hour baste the pork with some of the marinade you put aside (on both sides!) and put the pork back in the oven for another 20 minutes. Repeat the basting process, put the pork in the oven for another 20 minutes, then remove and let rest loosely tented in foil for about 15 minutes so the juices redistribute throughout the meat.

Serving suggestion: serve with rice and a quick vegetable stir fry.

Enjoy.

Note: While I include the marination process here – which I am doing today – I actually skipped it the day I bought the pork as I did not have the time. I prepared the marinade as described above, rubbed the pork with salt and pepper and put it in the oven, then did 3 rounds of basting after 40 minutes of cooking for a total of 1 hour 40 minutes. I prefer to marinade when possible but it certainly was nothing to spit at and the family really liked it served with rice.

Posted in Food, Recipes

Tagged , , , ,

Mapo Tofu

Posted on April 12, 2011 by ::sharlyn::| Comments Off on Mapo Tofu

I still remember the day my mom brought home a box of premixed sauce for tofu. I must have been around 9 because I remember cooking this dish. Mind you, almost the entire box, instructions and all were written in Japanese. The only things I could understand were the “how-to” illustrations and the words “Cook Do” on the front of the box. I made this dish, I fried the pork until it was cooked all the way through, and I added the packet of sauce and tofu to the pork and let it simmer. And boy was it delicious! I had no idea that the proper name for the dish was Mapo Tofu so from that day, I called it Cook Do and I remember eating Cook Do regularly until I moved in with my future husband who did almost all of the cooking until our son was born.

These days, I make Mapo from scratch. It’s easy enough, and I almost always have the ingredients on hand. Plus, it’s become comfort food for my family. My son spent an entire month in New York with his grandmother last summer. When I flew over to pick him up, one of the first things he asked was if I would cook Mapo Tofu for him. Before that moment, I never thought that the foods I cooked for my children would become something they would want to come home to.

Mapo Tofu

2 garlic cloves minced
1 inch piece of ginger grated
1 lb. ground pork (be sure there’s no saline solution)
3 spring onions
2 T hot bean paste (we use Yeo’s brand, see notes)
2 T shoyu or tamari
1 T oyster sauce
1 block of firm tofu
1 T cornstarch
2 T rice wine vinegar
3/4 cup of water
1 T canola or peanut oil

Heat the oil over medium high heat in a wok or frying pan. Add the garlic, and ginger and cook until fragrant (less than 30 seconds). Be sure not to brown the garlic and ginger. Add the ground pork and stir fry until the pork is cooked through and is no longer pink. Add half of the spring onions, the three sauces, all of water and tofu. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes. Mix cornstarch and rice wine vinegar, add to pan, raise the heat and bring to a boil stirring gently until the sauce thickens. Add the remaining spring onions to the pan. Serve over hot rice. Enjoy.

Notes: Yeo’s hot bean paste is one of the milder pastes we’ve used. Different brands of hot bean paste have varying levels of heat so you may have to adjust your measurements accordingly.

Posted in Food, Recipes

Tagged , ,

Gluten-free Japanese Beef Curry from scratch

Posted on April 1, 2011 by Nowfeedme| Comments Off on Gluten-free Japanese Beef Curry from scratch
Japanese beef curry - gluten free variation

Japanese beef curry - gluten free variation

I discovered Japanese curry as a teenager after moving to Hawaii in the early 90s and have craved it ever since. One of the greatest days had to be when I was introduced to Curry House, a Japanese curry restaurant chain which opened in Hawaii. After moving away I learned to my dismay that Curry House had not made it to my new home state so I resorted myself to making curry using the packaged cubes many of us know. Frankly they’re not that bad and make for a quick and easy curry. Trying out different brands other than simply sticking to S&B the way I used to introduced me to other flavors of curry which I have come to prefer. I had wanted to learn how to make Japanese curry from scratch for may years but never got around to learning how. Part of it was because, though I am half Asian, I am not familiar with cooking with the spices involved when making curry (Japanese or otherwise).

One day I learned that my blood pressure was on the rise and I had to make the decision to watch my salt intake. Knowing how much sodium is in prepackaged ramen we took a look at a package of curry cubes and saw that the sodium content in one of those packages is very high too. So I did what any self-respecting foodie with a craving would do and began browsing through cookbooks and web sites. Not being one to simply follow any recipe I took bits and pieces of several recipes and came up with my own. Round one was a chicken curry which was good but I regretted not using beef as I prefer it. While nothing was wrong with the curry itself, and everyone liked it, that it was chicken instead of beef was unusual for me and as it didn’t have a richer flavor.

Well the craving for Japanese curry came again today and this time we are in a period of eating gluten-free to test whether one or more members of our family might be sensitive to gluten. So I made curry again, this time with beef and gluten-free. Inspiration as before came from several recipes, though quite a bit came from the recipe posted by Aya Tanaka on the Serious Eats web site. The recipe I made today serves 4.

Ingredients:

Curry:

1 lb beef, cubed
2 onions, sliced thin
2 Tbsp butter
2 carrots, cut into pretty large pieces
4 potatoes, cut into large cubes
4 cups beef broth (32 ounces)
salt to taste
pepper to taste

For the roux:

3 Tbps butter
1/4 cup all purpose gluten-free flour mix (such as Better Batter or other rice and tapioca flour mix)
1 1/2 Tbsp S&B curry powder (comes in a can)
1/2 Tbsp Garam Masala
splash of Worcesteshere sauce

Start by slowly caramelizing the onions in a large pot on low heat. This is a long and slow process which can take half an hour or more. Turning up the heat too high will brown the onions which is not what you want. When done remove from pot into a bowl, turn up the heat to medium-high (6 on my stove) and brown the beef cubes in some vegetable oil for a few minutes until they are browned on all sides. Make sure you wait for the pan to heat up enough first so you don’t end up with boiled grey meat instead of browned meat. Add the carrots, the caramelized onions, and the beef broth and bring to a boil. Once it has come to a boil turn it down to simmer (3-4 on my stove) and skim off the impurities off the top. Cover and let simmer for 30 minutes, checking on it every 15 minutes or so and giving it a stir. When the meat is beginning to feel tender (like it will break easily after another 30 minutes of cooking) add the potatoes and simmer for another 30 minutes or so. Note that if you don’t like very soft carrots you can hold off on adding them after the meat is browned and add them with the potatoes. When the potatoes are done (before they begin to fall apart and disintegrate) scoop out some liquid and dissolve the roux, then add it all back into the pot and let it thicken for a few minutes. Turn off the heat and serve.

To make the roux:

Melt the butter in a small pot or pan. Add the gluten-free flour mix, garam masala, black pepper, a splash of Worcesteshere sauce, and a small squeeze of ketchup (1-2 tsp). Whisk it all together quickly until it thickens into a paste. When done take it off the heat and set aside until the stew is done and you are ready to use it. You can add some Ichimi Togarashi to your plate if you want it spicier.

Japanese curry roux

Japanese curry roux

 

Posted in Food, Recipes

Tagged , , , ,