It’s meatball week here at Chez SGCC.  That’s because we love meatballs and think they make the perfect Super Bowl nosh.   They’re compact, easy to eat and can be made a zillion different ways.  So, as we count down to the big game, I’ll be sharing some different and delicious meatball recipes for you all to try out.

Let’s kick off with these yummy Asian-style Scallion Meatballs with a Soy-Ginger Glaze.

The original recipe for these tasty little morsels, from Canal House Cooking, calls for ground turkey.  I decided to make them with a combination of ground chicken and pork.    You can use whatever you want.  Turkey is perfectly fine.   I just think that Asian meatballs should be made with chicken and pork.   I also put a splash of fish sauce in my meatballs.  Don’t ask me why.  I’m just crazy like that.  I think it ups the umami quotient. 

I like to pulse the meat up a few times in the food processor before I mix in the rest of the ingredients.  You don’t have to do this either.  I find it gives the meatballs a finer texture, though.

There are no bread crumbs or other thickeners in the original recipe either.  I found the meatball mixture to be a little too wet for the balls to hold their shape, so I added a little cornstarch to it.  It worked great!

I love these gratuitous frying pan shots, don’t you?  The bubbles make me giddy!

Once your meatballs are all cooked, serve them with a drizzle of soy-ginger glaze.  They taste even better if you eat them with cute little curly-topped bamboo toothpicks like these.

It seems like all I ever do lately is complain about the heat?  Well, that’s because it’s HOT here, people!  Really, really hot.  And humid.  Hot and humid is miserable.  Thus, I am miserable too. Hot, cranky and miserable!   Yes, I know it could be worse.  The grass is always greener and all that.  But in this case, the grass actually is greener somewhere else.  Because it is so damn hot, our grass is mostly brown these days – brown and crunchy and sad.  I know that compared to much of the country, this place is considered a paradise.  But, living in paradise does have its drawbacks.

Heat makes me tired – and lazy.  I don’t feel like going anywhere or doing anything, including cooking.  Except for making ice cream.  Does making ice cream count as cooking?

But still, we have to eat, and I can only get away with heat-related cooking reprieves for just so long.  So, I’ve been resorting to lots of salads and other quick dishes that don’t require a lot of effort on my part.

One of the easiest ways to get a meal on my table in a short amount of time is to make pizza.  All you need is the dough, a stocked fridge and some imagination.  And, I’ll let you in on a little secret: I buy my dough.  Sure, I know how to make it from scratch, and I sometimes do – when it’s cold outside, and I’m in a good mood.  In fact, my favorite recipe can be found here.  But, I’m sure not going to go to all of that time and trouble making homemade pizza dough in the dead of summer, especially when I can buy some great stuff at several local pizzerias and bakeries.  I can even find an acceptable product at my neighborhood supermarket.

Pizza is a lifesaver because you can put just about anything on it – even leftovers -  and it will almost always taste good.  I’ve made a lot of pretty great pizza using some rather unconventional toppings, like leftover pulled pork, picadillo and even fruit salad.  Last Friday night, I think I created my most interesting and delicious concoction yet, and it all started with a leftover container of Chinese takeout.

I’d been having one of those terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days, and all I wanted to do  was go home, turn the a/c down to 68 degrees and crawl into a cool corner.    I would rather have chewed on broken glass than go back out and sit in a restaurant.  So, I called an Italian bakery that was on my way home and asked if they had any pizza dough left.  They did, and I swung by to pick up a few blobs.

After I got home, I foraged around in my kitchen to find something to put on my pizza.  I decided to make one pie with the last of my homemade ricotta and some tomatoes from my garden.

Coming up with the fixings for the other pie wasn’t so easy.  I guess I hadn’t been shopping in longer than I’d thought.   And then, I spied a small container of Szechuan Eggplant with Garlic Sauce leftover from the night before.  There wasn’t enough to make a meal out of, but there was plenty to top a pizza with.  So that’s just what I did.

I’ll admit, I was a little concerned about how that pizza would turn out.  But OMG!  It was out. of. this. world.  Seriously!  Mr. SGCC and I couldn’t stop eating it.  In the oven, the sauce thickened and the eggplant and onions got all melty and caramelized.  It had a subtle sweetness that cut right through the sharpness of the garlic.  Who would have ever guessed that a container of half-eaten Chinese takeout could be turned into such an amazing pizza?  Color me gobsmacked!

I’m leaving you with not so much a recipe, as a guide.  Don’t feel obligated to run out to your corner Chinese place for Eggplant in Garlic Sauce.  That is, unless you really love Eggplant in Garlic Sauce.  In that case, go right ahead.  If you don’t, however, any number of different dishes would work just as well on a pizza, like Moo Shu Pork or Beef and Broccoli.  (I wouldn’t try it with wonton soup, though.  Just sayin’.)   It doesn’t even have to be Chinese.  I’ll bet Butter Chicken or Saag Aloo from your favorite Indian restaurant would be great options as well.

I suppose that the moral of this story is that we need to keep our minds open to new things, especially when it comes to food.  Sometimes flavors that we would never think of mixing together can be a fantastic combination.  And also, that no matter how crappy your day has been, a fabulous pizza can put it all in perspective.

I absolutely adore Thai green papaya salad, or Som Tam.  I always order it when I see it on a restaurant menu.  In fact, I have actually dined at certain restaurants solely because I’d heard that their green papaya salad was amazing.  My favorite Asian market sometimes carries their own homemade version of it, and it is really something special.   Sadly, I haven’t seen it there in quite a while.

The best way I can think of to describe green papaya salad is as a crunchy, sweet and salty take on Western coleslaw.   It’s a lively party of many textures and flavors, like garlic, chili, lime and fish sauce, and it is just plain delicious.  The main ingredient of traditional Som Tam is of course, shredded “green” papaya, which is basically the flesh of the raw, unripened fruit.  While I can easily find ripe, yellow papayas in my local markets, the unripe ones are more elusive.  And, when I have a craving for green papaya salad, that just won’t do!

When I made my Asian Wedding Soup, aka faux pho, a few weeks ago, I desperately wanted a bowl of green papaya salad to serve alongside it.   But, I also didn’t want to go crazy looking for all of the ingredients I would need.  So, I put on my food ninja thinking cap, and tried to figure out a way to achieve the “personality” of the dish with what was readily available to me.  Sometimes, you just have to think outside the box.  What I came up with was a  creative and very tasty (if I do say so myself) take on this Thai classic.   Instead of green papaya  as the base for my salad, I used….. 

BROCCOLI SLAW!

Yup.  That’s right.  I used a bag of good old broccoli slaw plucked from the produce aisle of my local supermarket.    It was already julienned.  It was crisp.  It was crunchy.  It was easy.  And, it was even green!   But, the most important thing was that, when it was all dolled up in its fancy, exotic dressing, it gave me the same essence of that green papaya salad that I love so much.   I can’t believe I’d never thought if it before!

To prepare my salad, I whisked up my dressing, dumped the broccoli slaw in a bowl along with some chopped tomatoes and scallions, and mixed them all together.  Then, I sprinkled some chopped, dry roasted peanuts on top for a little extra crunch.  That was it!  Really, it couldn’t have been simpler.

The guidelines for this recipe are not written in stone.  I’ve listed the ingredients in the measurements that I used.  Feel free to change them to suit your own tastes.  I love fish sauce, so I was a little heavy handed with it.  If you like a more subtle kick, use less.  The same goes for the rest of the ingredients.  The important thing is that you like it.

Now, if I ever do come across a true green papaya, I’ll be more than happy to whip up the real deal.  But for now, I’m thrilled with my faux version.   It’s a vibrant, refreshing and very flavorful dish that would be a welcome addition to any Asian-inspired meal – at least at my table.

ขอให้เจริญอาหาร!

Enjoy!

Have you ever heard of Asian Wedding Soup?  Neither have I.  I did a quick Google search on it and didn’t find anything either.  Actually, I just made the name up because this soup was intended to be an Asian counterpart to traditional Italian wedding soup, which is also a misnomer as that dish has nothing to do with weddings either.  But, it works for me and I’ll tell you why.

Italian wedding soup is a a traditional Neapolitan soup containing greens, little meatballs and pasta suspended in a clear broth.  It gets its name from the harmonious “marriage” of flavors of the ingredients in it.  My Asian Wedding Soup works much the same way.  It also contains greens, little meatballs and pasta suspended in a clear broth.  And, the flavors all marry very well together.  Except that instead of spinach or escarole, this soup contains baby bok choy and Napa cabbage.  Instead of pastina, it has rice noodles.  And, while both soups contain little meatballs, the Asian version is made with pork and minced shrimp, and is flavored with garlic, ginger, scallions, soy and fish sauce.  Even the broth is different, permeated with hints of coriander, ginger, clove and star anise.   So, while the basic components of both soups are the same, they differ greatly in execution.  The broth is based on the Vietnamese Phở Gà.  It’s like a pho fusion or a confused pho, depending on how you look at it.   Either way, I thought the dish was a big hit.

Of course, it is always preferable to use homemade chicken broth, but canned broth works very well in this soup.  And, unless you happen to have a stash of the homemade stuff in your freezer, canned will save you loads of time, making this soup a great choice for a weeknight meal.

As tasty as the broth for this soup is, for me, the real stars of the show are the meatballs.  I wanted them to be very light and almost fluffy, like the filling of a good dumpling.  To achieve the texture I was looking for, I started with some finely ground pork mixed with shrimp that I minced up in the food processor.  I added all of the typical seasonings and an egg to hold it together.  But, my secret weapon for making these meatballs practically float away is silken tofu. I always use it in my dumpling fillings, so I thought it would work well here as well.  Mixing in a little silken tofu softens the meatballs and gives them a slightly creamy quality.  Plus, the tofu has no real flavor of its own, so it soaks up all the other ones, enhancing them.

In addition to the greens, meatballs and noodles, I also added a mix of shiitake, oyster and enoki mushrooms to my soup, as well as some snowpeas and scallions.  I garnished it with fresh bean sprouts, cilantro, red chili slices and lime wedges.  Sadly, Thai basil was nowhere to be found around here, so I had to do without.    It was a lovely, fragrant soup with loud pops of flavor.  The meatballs turned out exactly the way I’d hoped they would.  They were perfect!  My little fusion experiment was a great success!

I’m really enjoying this new little group, French Fridays with Dorie.  So is Mr. SGCC.  He likes that I’m cooking real food, and not just sweets.  I like that too, but I also like that if I get really busy I don’t have to participate every week.  It takes the pressure off and allows me to enjoy the recipes I do make, because I choose to.

I couldn’t join in last week because I was in San Francisco for BlogHer Food.  So was Dorie.  Did I mention that I met her?  I did!  And, she was lovely.  That’s all I’m going to say about it now, because I haven’t posted my recap yet.  You’ll just have to be patient.  Patience is a virtue, you know. 

This week’s FFwD recipe is Vietnamese Spicy Chicken Noodle Soup.  I loved it!

Dorie’s soup has lots of bright, fresh flavors like ginger, garlic and chilies.  The base is made with chicken broth and creamy coconut milk.  I adore anything made with coconut milk!   Though not in the original recipe, I also added some Penang chili paste to my soup.  Chili paste and coconut milk are BFFs.  Everyone needs a BFF – even chili paste and coconut milk. 

I used thin Vietnamese rice noodles in my soup.  They’re the same kind that my favorite Vietnamese restaurant puts in its Phở.  I love Phở too, but it takes all day to make.  Dorie’s soup just as delicious, and only takes about an hour to put together.  That’s my kind of soup!

If you’d like to try this recipe for yourself (and you really should), you’ll have to buy Dorie’s Around My French Table.  You should buy it anyway, because it’s a fantastic cookbook.  If you’d like to see many, many more bowls of Vietnamese Spicy Chicken Noodle Soup,  stop by the FFwD web site and enjoy!

Are you getting sick of me talking about Suncoast Organics yet?  I hope not, because I’m going to talk about them again.  This week I got the prettiest rainbow-colored carrots in my goodie box.  Another “first” for me. I’d seen pictures of them in cookbooks and magazines, but never, ever found them in any market around here.  I wanted to use them in a way that would really show off their pretty colors.  That meant cooking them was out.  Since my Wickled Okra was such a success, I decided to pickle the carrots as well.

One of my favorite restaurants here in town is a casual, little Vietnamese place called Pho Cali.  As you can probably guess from the name, they have awesome pho.  But, they also have awesome everything else too.  Alongside every delectable dish they serve is a sweetly zesty pickled carrot and daikon radish medley called do chua.  It’s the first thing I go for on the plate.  I sometimes have to fight Mr. SGCC for it.  But, I’m the fastest fork in the East, so I usually win.  I love me some do chua! 

Instead of making a traditional pickle with my rainbow carrots,  I channeled my inner Asian and made some do chua.  Luckily, I still had some daikons left over from last week’s veggie box from you know who.

Do chua is so incredibly easy to make. Since it is a “fresh” pickle, there is no boiling or cooking involved. All you do is julienne the carrots and daikon, and soak them in a brine made with white vinegar, rice wine vinegar, a little water, sugar and a pinch of salt. That’s it!  Plus, the pickles only need to marinate in their brine for about an hour before they’re ready to devour.

The recipe I used is from a cookbook called Into the Vietnamese Kitchen: Treasured Foodways, Modern Flavors, by Andrea Nguyen.  If you like Vietnamese food, you should definitely check it out.  Even if you only like to eat Vietnamese food in restaurants, you should still check it out because it’s a beautiful book. Andrea also writes the excellent blogs, Viet World Kitchen and Asian Dumpling Tips.  I’ve tried several of her recipes and they always turn out great, especially her dumplings.  She is a dumplings rock star!

Do chua will keep for weeks in the fridge, so you might as well make a lot.  These little guys tend to disappear pretty quickly!

Enjoy!

Happy day! After resisting for years, I finally broke down and joined a CSA.  Well, not a true CSA exactly, but close.  To be honest, I was never really sold on the idea of getting a big mystery box of produce each week and then having to figure out what to do with it.  I kind of like to choose what ingredients I cook with, and plan my meals based on what inspires me.  Plus, I wasn’t crazy about the fact that I had to prepay for the season and was locked in every week, whether I was able to use the stuff or not.  Still, I loved the idea of having access to all of those lovely fresh fruits and veggies, because lord knows, I can rarely  find them at my local market! Enter Suncoast Organics and the perfect solution to my produce dilemma.

Suncoast Organics is a new business in my area that delivers – yes, DELIVERS – just picked, farm fresh, organic produce each week directly to my doorstep.  It’s similar to a CSA in that there is a membership fee, but it’s a small one and you don’t have to pay it all up front.  Also, I get to choose exactly what products I want and how much of each I want.  So, each week, I just click on Suncoast Organics’ web site, check out what’s available for that week, order what I want and pay as I go.  Brilliant, right?  If I’m going out of town or I just don’t feel like ordering one week, I don’t have to.  No wasteful spending and no wasted produce!  I still have to pay the $10.00 membership fee, but I can live with that. If I decide to discontinue the service, all I have to do is email Julie and Jim and let them know.  It’s a great compromise between a traditional CSA and buying my produce somewhere like Whole Foods.  Plus, it’s cheaper than you know where.

Last week I got some interesting things in my veggie basket, including yardlong beans, or Chinese long beans.  I have never, ever seen them before at the market, and I’m pretty sure I’d never eaten them before either.  I was psyched! 

Look how pretty they are!

I also got a bag of these gorgeous shiitake mushrooms.  Need I say more?

I put my Asian food thinking cap on and decided to combine them in a stir fry with ground pork, garlic, ginger and black bean sauce. I hunted around the web for some inspiration and found lots of great ideas.  In fact, I found too many great ideas!  So, I took a pinch of this and a smidge of that, and came up with my own version of Chinese Long Beans with Shiitake Mushrooms and Pork in Black Bean Sauce.

I heated up some grapeseed oil in my cast iron wok that I got last year at The Wok Shop. I love that wok!  I love The Wok Shop too!

Then, I cooked my garlic, ginger and ground pork. Next, I added the long beans that weren’t so long anymore after I cut them up, and stir fried them until they started to get tender.  Once the beans were on their way to delicious tenderness, I added in the shiitake mushrooms and cooked it all a little bit more.  Finally, I poured in the black bean sauce and simmered it for another several minutes and I was done.

There are lots of good recipes for homemade black bean sauce, but I decided to save some time by using a pre-made sauce from the Asian market.   There are a few good ones around, but the best one I’ve tried is from Lee Kum Kee.  I use it to make a similar dish with chicken and eggplant, as well as those tasty little steamed spareribs you see a lot on dim sum menus.

My verdict on the long beans?  I really liked them.  They were a lot like regular green beans, but chewier and a little saltier.  They played very nicely with the shiitake mushrooms, as those also tend to be a little chewy.  In fact, I would definitely consider the whole dish to be a success.

I’m looking forward to getting my hands on more long beans as soon as I can.  Next time, I’d love to try them stewed, Italian-style, with fresh tomatoes and potatoes.  Until then, I’m looking forward to my next bag of goodies from Suncoast Organics.

Chinese Long Beans with Shiitake Mushrooms and Pork in Black Bean Sauce

Ingredients:

1 pound long beans
1 pound ground pork
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon fish sauce
2 teaspoons sesame oil, divided
Pinch of salt and pepper
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1-2 tablespoons unflavored oil, such as vegetable, canola or grapeseed
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 teaspoon finely minced ginger
1/2 pound shiitake mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
3 tablespoons prepared black bean sauce
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1/2 -1 cup water

Preparation:

Rinse and cut the long beans into 3-inch lengths. Set aside.

Combine the pork, soy sauce, fish sauce, 1 teaspoon sesame oil, salt, pepper and cornstarch together in a medium bowl.   Mix well with a fork or your fingers until thoroughly combined.  Let it sit for about 5-10 minutes.

In a wok or large skillet, heat the unflavored oil on high heat until smoking, then add the garlic and ginger. Stirring constantly, fry for about 10-20 seconds until fragrant. Be careful not to burn it.  Add the pork and cook until it almost no pink remains, breaking up the chunks as you go. This should take about 2-3 minutes if your wok is really hot.

Add the long beans to the wok and continue to cook for about 4-5 minutes, or until no pink remains in the pork and the beans begin to get tender.   Add the mushrooms and cook about 2 minutes.  Remember to keep all of the ingredients moving so that nothing burns.

Whisk the black bean sauce, rice wine, brown sugar and 1/2 cup water together in a small bowl.

Reduce the heat to medium, and stir in the black bean mixture.  Taste it and if the sauce is too strong for you, add the rest of the water.  Continue to simmer and stir for another 5-8 minutes, or until the beans are cooked through and tender.

Remove the wok from the heat and mix in the remaining teaspoon of sesame oil.  Adjust the seasonings if necessary.

Serve as is, or with some steamed rice or noodles.

Serves 4.

Enjoy!

There’s a lot of Sandra Lee bashing that goes on in the “Foodie” world.  Come on, admit it.  We’ve all snickered at her cute little outfits that she matches to her kitchen decor in every episode. We’ve giggled at her seemingly unnatural preoccupation with fancy, fruity cocktails. We’ve chortled at her oh, so perfect “tablescapes”, because after all, who has the time to run around collecting all of that flotsam and jetsam, much less arrange it into a cohesive backdrop to show off a bunch of desserts made from store bought angel food cake and pudding cups.  And, most of us have downright sneered at her proclivity for concocting dishes out of boxed, canned, prepackaged food products.  Personally, I absolutely cringe every time I hear her mispronounce mascarpone. (That’s right, Sandra. It’s MASCARPONE, not MARSCAPONE. Got it? Thanks.)

Yes, indeed.  We’ve all had our fun at Sandra’s expense.  Yet I must confess, she kind of fascinates me.  While I’ve never been that kind of cutesy, matchy, crafty person, I secretly wish I could be.  I’d love to be able to whip up a lovely, themed buffet table out of pine cones, plastic flowers and pipe cleaners! And, though I don’t use a lot of processed foods in my own cooking, I can certainly appreciate Sandra’s creative energy and resourcefulness in hers. She fills a pretty wide niche for those who don’t have the time or inclination to spend hours in the kitchen.  In fact, I have tried a few of her “Semi-Homemade” recipes, and they were pretty tasty.

Case in point: A few days ago, Sandra did an episode on “tropical food”.  One of the dishes she made was a sort of Thai chicken curry with a peanut sauce, and I have to say, it looked good.  So good, that I decided to try it for myself – with several tweaks.  In her recipe, Sandra uses chunks of chicken breast.  I went with chicken thighs, because they tend to stay moister when cooked in small pieces.  She also relies on frozen vegetables.  I used fresh, because it only takes a few extra minutes to chop up a few peppers and some green beans.  Sandra also omits garlic in her version. I think that is a sin, so I added some.  I included sliced onions, scallions and a splash of fish sauce in the dish as well, because I like them.  I also made this a one pot dish by sautéing the chicken and vegetables separately, removing them, making the sauce in the same pan and then adding it all together.  Oh yes, and I also toasted the red curry paste before adding it to the peanut curry sauce.  I know it sounds like a lot of changes, but it really isn’t.  I used all of the original ingredients in the recipe. I just added a few extra and put them together a little differently.

First, you need to chop up your chicken.

Then, slice up your vegetables.

Heat the oil. (Doesn’t it look like a cute little sea creature?)

Brown the chicken and vegetables.

Look at that curry paste sizzle!

Mix up the peanut sauce and toss it all together.

Let me tell you, people, this dish was beyond fabulous!  Seriously! No one was more surprised than I was.  My little family of three ate the whole, entire batch! Mr. SGCC and Mini SGCC were actually fighting over the last few grains of rice left in the bowl!  That peanut curry sauce was so delicious. It had it all – heat, spice, salt and sweet. And, it was ready to eat in under an hour.  I served the chicken with some coconut rice (not instant) and a nice, tossed salad (not frozen).  This is one dish that I know I will make again and again.  My hat is off to Sandra for creating it.  I’ll definitely think twice before I criticize another one of her recipes without trying it first – and I hope you will too.

Chicken with Peanut Curry Sauce
very liberally adapted from Sandra Lee

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast or thighs, cut in 1-inch pieces
1 tablespoon cornstarch
Salt and pepper
1 medium sweet onion, sliced thinly
8 ounces fresh green beans cut into 1-inch pieces
1 large red bell pepper, sliced into thin strips
3-4 cloves garlic minced
4-5 scallions, thinly sliced

For sauce:
2 heaping tablespoons Thai red curry paste
1 1/2 cups coconut milk
1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth,
1/3 cup chunky peanut butter
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon fish sauce
2 tablespoons lime juice
Lime wedges for garnishing
Cilantro sprigs for garnishing

Directions:

1.  Toss chicken and cornstarch together in a bowl until well mixed.  Season with salt and pepper. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add chicken sauté until lightly browned, about 3-4 minutes. Remove to another container and set aside.

2.  Add onion, pepper strips and green beans and sauté until tender, about 5 minutes.  Add garlic and continue cooking for another 2 minutes.  Remove to the same container as the chicken.

3.  Make the peanut curry sauce. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together all sauce ingredients except curry paste.until smooth.  Heat remaining tablespoon of oil in the frying pan and add curry paste, smushing it into the oil.  Cook curry paste for about 1 minute, until fragrant. Add the rest of the sauce ingredients into the pan, mix well and bring to a boil.  Add the chicken and vegetables and stir to combine. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally until sauce thickens slightly, about 6 to 8 minutes. Stir in scallions and serve over  steamed rice.

Serves 4.

I can’t imagine that there is anyone left in this world that hasn’t heard of the devastating recent events in Haiti.  On January 12, the small Caribbean county was hit by a catastrophic 7.0 earthquake.  By January 24, at least 52 aftershocks measuring 4.5 or greater had been recorded. As of February 12, an estimated three million people were affected by the quake.  The Haitian Government reports that between 217,000 and 230,000 people have been identified as dead, an estimated 300,000 injured, and an estimated 1,000,000 are homeless.  It is also estimated that 250,000 residences and 30,000 commercial buildings have collapsed or been severely damaged. As you can imagine, the current living conditions in Haiti are deplorable!   In the aftermath, many countries have responded to appeals for humanitarian aid, pledging funds and dispatching rescue and medical teams, engineers and support personnel.  In addition, numerous church groups, charitable organizations and private citizens have stepped in to help as well, including the food blogging community.  Determined not to stand idly by, BloggerAid-Changing the Face of Famine has decided to run an online raffle to raise funds for the relief effort in Haiti.  This relief effort is called H2Ope for Haiti.

H20pe for Haiti was devised as a way for BA-CFF to raise funds to supply much needed water to Haiti through Concern Worldwide. This non-governmental international humanitarian organization founded in 1968 works around the world to reduce suffering and work towards the ultimate elimination of extreme poverty in the world’s poorest countries. Concern Worldwide has been a presence in Haiti since 1994 and had over 100 staff members on the ground when the earthquake struck.  Despite losing several team members in the tragedy, they have been quick to act with distribution of supplies, including 135,000 liters of water per day.

To implement this fundraiser, BA-CFF is running an online raffle, with prizes donated by participating food bloggers (like me).  The money raised will be paid directly into a Justgiving page.  Justgiving is the United Kingdom parent of Firstgiving, the site used in the Menu for Hope events.  Every dollar raised gets paid directly into the charity’s account, to be applied exclusively to the Haiti relief effort as agreed by Concern Worldwide.  Justgiving makes it really easy to donate in that that they accept credit cards, debit cards and Paypal as payment methods.

My raffle item for this fundraiser is a copy of David Chang’s bestselling cookbook, Momofuku (PRIZE CODE: HFH12).  It’s no secret that I have fallen in love with this book.  I’ve written about it here and here.  And now, for the price of a $10.00 raffle ticket, you can have the chance to win one for yourself.  H20pe for Haiti’s list of fabulous raffle prizes and instructions for donating can be found on Jeanne’s site at Cook Sister, and at BA-CFF’s Justgiving page, found at http://www.justgiving.com/h2ope4haiti. I hope you’ll consider participating.

Now, as an added incentive to donate, and because I love you guys, I have another Momofuku dish to share with you.  This one is really going to knock your ever lovin’ socks off because it features pork!  And, not just any old pork either. Nosiree!  I’m talking about a big old hunk of pork butt cooked low and slow for hours and hours, until it’s gorgeously caramelized and falling off the bone tender. I’m talking about the pork in David Chang’s Bo Ssäm!

Bo Ssäm is a popular dish in Korean cuisine in which steamed pork and various accompaniments are wrapped in leafy greens such as lettuce or sesame leaf. The word ssäm literally means “wrapped”.  It is often served with a thick, spicy paste known as ssämjang and several small side dishes or banchan such as kimchi.

In Chang’s version, the pork is coated with a sugar and salt dry rub and roasted low and slow, barbecue-style, for many hours, until it can just be pulled from the bone with a fork.  The rest of his bo ssäm “package” includes his version of ssämjang, raw oysters, Ginger-Scallion Sauce, rice and kimchi. I wasn’t originally convinced about the oysters, but then I read several accounts of how magical they are with the pulled pork. Still, I wasn’t about to deal with shucking fresh oysters in my kitchen. I’m the Accident Prawn, remember?  Oyster shuckers and me are a dangerous combination!

Luckily, I live in Florida, and the one thing I can always find here are freshly shucked oysters, neatly stored in plastic containers.  I figured that was the best way to go.

I didn’t make my own kimchi either. {{{hanging my head in shame}}}.  Instead, I bought some at a local Asian market.  The owner is Korean and she makes several kinds of kimchi fresh from scratch every day.  It is really good, too!  I knew that any kimchi I could whip up wouldn’t be nearly as good as hers, so I took that shortcut too.  The thing is, that by taking little shortcuts like this, a time and labor intensive meal like bo ssäm doesn’t seem so daunting.  Thus, you might be more likely to actually try it at home.  And, while it is always admirable to make each component of every dish yourself, it isn’t always necessary.  I’m not talking Semi-Homemade here.  I’m just saying that outsourcing a few things sometimes isn’t the end of the world.

As far as recipes go, Chang’s pulled pork isn’t difficult at all to prepare.  The hardest part is waiting for the pig to cook.  But, this also gives you lots of time to prepare the side dishes and sauces.  It also gives you lots of time to do the laundry, water your plants, pay some bills or take a little nap. (I skipped right on over to that last one!)  And, I have to tell you, people, that this pork is so very juicy and succulent – utterly amazing!  A total foodgasm if there ever was one!

Presenting, the naked pork:

Here’s what it looked like wearing its salt and sugar rub:

Here it is at the halfway mark:

And, here it is out of the oven and all ready to jump on your plate:

Oh, baby!

And, as if it could possibly get any better, get this.   This whole meal, which feeds at least eight people, cost me about $36.45 to make – including the oysters and the store-bought kimchi!  Can you believe it?  That gorgeous ten pound pork shoulder only set me back $16.50!  Momofuku Ssäm Bar charges $180.00 for this “dining experience”, which rounds out to about $22.50 per person for eight people, not including tax and tip.  I was able to do it for $4.55 per person.  Sure, the ambiance in my dining room probably isn’t as cool as Momofuku’s, but who cares!  The point is that you can create this fabulous feast in your own home for a fraction of what it costs to go out.  My cost was about 20% of what I would have paid at ANY restaurant, which leaves a nice chunk of change left over for Mama to get herself a new pair of shoes!

Trust me, people!  You need this book! Seriously! You do!

Enjoy!

Those of you who read my post last week about Momofuku’s Ginger Scallion Noodles have probably already figured out that I did succumb and buy the book.  And, I’m so glad I did!  Even if I never make one more recipe from it, it was still worth the price.  It’s a beautiful book and a very entertaining read.

I saw this recipe for baked chicken wings a few weeks ago on Steamy Kitchen’s site, and it sang to me. (I love it when that happens!)  I almost always bake my wings instead of frying them, and honestly, I like them better that way.  Plus, it’s a lot less messy!  Who wants to spend their time sopping up an oil slick on their stove, not to mention figuring out an appropriate way to dispose of a vat of dirty, used, hot oil?  I’d rather be watching Simon skewer fresh-faced pop star wannabes on American Idol or finding out who gets “auffed” on Project Runway.  (By the way, pouring said oil down the garbage disposal is NOT an appropriate way to dispose of it.  Don’t ask me how I know this. Just trust me.)

Anyway, this chicken wing recipe is not technically right out of Momofuku.   Those wings are brined, steamed, and then fried in duck fat.  I knew that was never happening in my kitchen, even if I did have the time.  Unfortunately, duck fat isn’t a stock item at my local Publix, or anywhere else in town for that matter – and believe me, I’ve looked!   So, for the time being, I’ll just have to dream about Momofuku’s wings and live vicariously through those of you brave souls who have made them for yourself.

I’m not complaining, though. (Well, maybe just a little.) Because, these baked wings are fantastic!  Their fabulosity comes from Momofuku’s signature Octo Vinaigrette. This vinaigrette was originally designed as an accompaniment for grilled octopus (Octo! Get it?), but it is amazing  in lots of other things too.  It’s a quirky little mixture, because the oil to vinegar ratio is reversed.  Plus, it’s loaded with fresh garlic, ginger and hot chilies.  After coming out of the oven, those naked, baked chicken wings are utterly doused in it.  And, it is good stuff – really, really good stuff!

This is my new favorite way to prepare (and eat) chicken wings.  While, I’d love to try the original version some day, scarfing down a plate of these babies is certainly no hardship!  I’m definitely making them again for Super Bowl Sunday.  How about you?

Enjoy!