Home Grown Tomatoes and Chinese Roasted Pork

Today, the majority of my tomatoes have fully ripened and I am very proud of them. When I look at these vibrant fruits, I feel very, very happy! They bring me great pride. My favorite type of tomato is the Cherokee purple, a type of heirloom tomato that is sweet and great with balsamic reduction and olive oil.  I still have a box of tomatoes that are on their way to ripening.

Also today, a little ceremony took place in my house as an offering to spirits who may have wondered into our house during our renovations. As according to tradition, we pray and offer flowers, fruits and meat as a way to respect these spirits so that may leave us with good luck and not misbehavior or bad fortune. The meat that we offered was chunks of Chinese Roasted Pork, equaling at around 12 lbs altogether. Traditionally, we should have offered an entire pig but that would have scared the crap out of my brother and their would not have been a lot of meat.
What makes me rave about the pork is that this local business offers the best roasted pork throughout of Edmonton. The shop is called Tran Minh, located in Chinatown. The family is very cheerful and accommodating to what you would like, whether it be lean cuts, less sweet, full meals, or just a few slices of sausage for a snack, they would be happy to oblige. My family enjoys minimal pieces of fat in our pork, and lots of meat. I never knew it was possible to have such little amounts of fat in Chinese Roasted pork but, as seen in the photos, all you can see is a huge piece of savory and succulent meat, with an extremely crispy skin.
This place is an absolute must for Edmontonions with a palette for Chinese roasted pork.

Quinoa Stuffed Pork Roast

I prepared this late last night for my family to roast for dinner tonight, while I was at work. The filling is made up of cooked quinoa, chopped portabello, an egg, bread crumbs, garlic and seasonings.  Around 1 to 1-1/2 cup of  stuffing went into the roast since my roast was fairly large. I seasoned my roast with some J&D's original flavored bacon salt. I layered the bottom of my roasting pan with carrots and onions, trussed the roast, splashed with olive oil and placed it in the fridge to be cooked the next night. From what I heard after I got home, it was a success!

Stuffing:

1 cup quinoa, cooked in 2 cups of broth or water
1 large portabello mushroom, chopped and sauteed
1 garlic clove, minced or 1 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
1 egg
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 tbsp olive oil

Stuffing the Pork:
Slice the pork slowly until you have a flat piece of meat, resembling a mat. Rub with softened butter.
Press filling evenly on the mat of meat and roll up. Truss, rub with seasonings or bacon salt (even better, cover with bacon strips).
Roast in a preheated oven of 475 F for around 45 minutes or until cooked. Let rest for at least 10-15 minutes before slicing and serving.

Bacon goodness that is vegetarian friendly

Fusion Pork Chops

I had 5 ingredients that I needed to work with for dinner and my head hurt just trying to figure out what to do with them all. I had on-the-bone pork chops, long beans, mushrooms, quail eggs and sweet potatoes. At first, I wanted to bake the chops with the sweet potatoes but I realized that by doing that, the flavors would be really bold and potatoes and pork would make a meal leaving me with 3 remaining ingredients that were very light in flavor. So instead, inspired by Vietnamese-styled grilled chops with Asian 5-Spice, I marinated the chops in the special spice mix, along with some soy sauce, black pepper, sesame oil and sugar and grilled those babies up.
To serve along side the pork chops, I sauteed the long beans and mushrooms with some seasonings and reserved a few stalks to form "nests" for my soft-boiled quail eggs. I also whipped up some sweet potato mash, making sure to keep it sweet and creamy to counter against the bold and tangy balsamic-soy reduction that I made to bond everything together.
The concept of my dish presentation is to have the "nest" and egg on a cliff, whereas the pork chop served as the cliff levered by the mash and stir-fry. The concept serves as a memorial to a Blue Jay that we found, dead, in our back yard.

 

(Mock) BBQ Day 4

It was gloomy, cold and rainy today so I couldn't work the grill outside, so instead, I used my non-stick iron grill/skillet over a portable gas burner to make these succulent and awesome Aloha Pork Chops, once again, from my Kraft Canada magazine. I served these juicy chops with Vegetable Saffron Quinoa and Roasted Asparagus with Portabella. Yum Yum Yum!
The quinoa was just something I quickly threw together in my rice cooker, adding a cup of frozen mixed vegetables, the required amount of water (I used veggie stock 'cause I'm awesome), a pinch of saffron and salt and pepper to taste. I left that cooking in the rice cooker and kept it warm until ready to serve.
As for the asparagus, I was inspired by Chef John's recipe on Foodwishes via Youtube. The recipe is very straight forward and instead of the prosciutto, I used one chopped portabella mushroom. This dish is a must, it's soooo refreshing and delicious!
As for Evil Dr. Pork Chop (ahaha, I grew up with Toy Story...), instead of the Kraft BBQ sauce, I used Bull's Eye Original Bold and I added 2 tsp of Asian Five-Spice and 1 tsp of red chili hot sauce to kick the barbecue sauce an extra notch. My chops were not boneless as the recipe stated, I used bone-in since I think it adds more to the juiciness of the pork (Tip: Score the fat along the pork so that the meat doesn't curl when it's being grilled). Before cooking the chops, I lightly seasoned both sides with trusty salt n' pepper. I made sure my skillet was very hot before placing in the meat, and that delightedly sizzle was music to my ears. It's a very interesting recipe to try since it's a great twist on the ol' sweet and sour pork and the grilled pineapple adds a great touch to the boldness of the pork!

Bacon Wrapped Boneless Turkey

 So...I had a frozen turkey lying around so, inspired by the endless bacon-filled epic-ness of Epic Meal Time videos, I made this: boneless turkey, stuffed with bread, pork, and bacon and wrapped in bacon. Roasted and then glazed with pure Canadian maple syrup, served with coarsely mashed potatoes and rye whiskey turkey gravy. Slices of my Saffron and Honey bread also accompanied the dish. I invited some family over for a small family dinner. It was an epic moment.

Lunar New Years (Vietnamese Customs)

So Lunar New Years has just passed but most Vietnamese households are still celebrating (such as mine lol).
In preparation for this huge celebration, my mom and I made traditional Vietnamese Glutinous Rice cakes (square, prisms, and log-shaped ones). Along with the traditional use of white sticky rice, my mom also used black glutinous rice, which gives a twist in color and in taste. Every New Years, my mom and basically the rest of the family set out to make these delectable cakes, a tradition that has been passed down throughout the generations of the Vietnamese people. A (variation of the) folk tale explains the origins of these rice cakes, and how they represented the Earth and the Heavens:
"There once was a King who was in constant pressure to choose an heir out of his several sons. A few weeks before the celebration of the Lunar New Year, he set up a contest for the young princes; their task was to individually prepare a special dish that is unique and delectable for the king to taste and which would make a fine offering to the ancestors. If the dish is successful and passes judgment, that respective prince will be the next heir. So thus, the princes split throughout the vast kingdom, in search of rare and exotic ingredients to prepare their dish. The youngest of the princes, stayed in the city. The Young Prince did not have as much wealth as his older brothers nor did he have any idea what to prepare because most of what he could think of did not seem unique or fitting for a king. The night before the contest, he decided to forfeit and not attend the taste testing. However, as he slept that night, a magical wise man came into his dreams and instructed him to make two different kinds of cakes made from glutinous rice. One would be in a square shape, wrapped in banana leaves with fillings of savoury mung bean paste and slices of fatty pork. This rice cake, banh chung, would be symbolic to the green rice patties fields found throughout Vietnam, thus representing Earth. The second cake, banh day, which is made from glutinous rice powder, is shaped into thick round patties. The whiteness of these cakes and it's blandness represent purity and the round shape represents how vast and full Heaven is. The magical wise man guaranteed that these cakes will impress the King and the court. The Young Prince arose from his sleep and quickly got to work that very night.

The variety of rice cakes

The next morning, the King and his court assembled and began the taste testings. His many sons presented him with many rare, unique and impressive dishes such as shark fin soup, tortoise stew, and etc. However, none of the dishes could pass the King's approval for they were rare and impressive but they were too luxurious, something the King have grown accustomed to, therefore it was not unique. The last dish was tasted but the Young Prince had not yet arrived. The older Princes jeered and protesting, appealing for the King to go ahead and choose a successor without the Young Prince, as they thought he had probably forfeited. Just as the King was about to give in, the Young Prince arrived, black bangs under his eyes for the lack of sleep (the rice cakes take from 5-12 hours to cook). The court was silent as the Young Prince knelt before his father, and offered his two simple dishes. The Older Princes took one look at his platter and jeered and snickered, muttering among themselves at how ridiculous and stupid the Young Prince is for offering such a simple and common dish. The King, who was also skeptical, asked the Young Prince to explain his dish and its contents. The Young Prince explained the ingredients and the symbolic meanings of each rice cake. The King nodded and gestured the prince towards him for the taste test. With one bite, the King smiled as the aroma and taste of the sticky rice embraced him, along with the savouriness of the fatty pork and the smoothness of the mung bean filling. The rice patties where eaten with a slice of Vietnamese Sausage, which added to the simplicity of the patty. The King proclaimed that The Young Prince was the winner and to honor such a thoughtful and symbolic dish, banh chung and banh day were to be part of the offerings to ancestors for every Lunar New Year to come."

Black Sticky Rice Banh Tet

The square cake has been "re-modeled" into a different shape in Southern Vietnam (the folk tale happened between Northern and Central Vietnam). Southern Vietnamese use the same ingredients to make a variation of the original cake; the shape is log-like and sometimes black eyed-peas are added to the glutinous rice (called "banh tet"). My mom makes her own variation by using black glutinous rice or "velvet" sweet rice in her sticky rice mix, which is mixed with coconut cream for extra flavor and aroma. She also makes a vegetarian variation for me, which she uses raw cashews as my source of protein, along with the mung bean filling (no photos). I love cashews.


Other offerings for ancestors include a platter of fruit that contains a soursop, a coconut, a papaya and mangoes. According to tradition, each fruit represents a slang used as a word of prayer for abundance in the coming new year.

 

There are a lot of special dishes during the New Year for us. Another main dish is Braised Pork with Eggs. It's basically fatty pork, cut into HUGE chunks, and braised in mixture of coconut juice, sugar and fish sauce, along with hard boiled eggs until all has a caramelized color and the pork can easily be pulled into threads (kinda like pulled pork). The traditional method of cooking this dish is on a stove for several hours but since we are more advanced here, we used a slow-cooker (or crock pot) for it. The meat doesn't dry out and stays yummeh! The pork threads are rolled with pickled bean sprouts in rice paper and is dipped into the braise liquid. it use to be my favourite dish before I became a vegetarian. But I also had my own vegetarian braised pork and eggs (I found some veggie pork chunks at an asian supermarket and the meat had layers of "fat" (made from konnyaku starch). It was sooo yummeh!

Veggie braised Pork and Egg with rice paper and veggies

Veggie Braised Pork (close-up)

Braised Pork and Egg

Pickled Veggies

And of course, the best part after stuffing our faces out was the lucky money!! And with that money, GAMBLING!! har har har!!

This year seems like it will be awesome because my celebratory days were fantastico!

(I know the lucky envelope is yellow, live with it. It was cute.)