Pork Adobo

Usually I make Chicken Adobe, but I was wanting something a little different and since I knew I had a pork loin roast in the freezer, I decided to try a Pork Adobo.

Wow! Was this amazing!!



Pork Adobo w/Gravy
1 1/2 C white vinegar
1 C soy sauce
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 TBLS peppercorns
3 bay leaves
1 C water
3 - 4 lbs pork loin roast, cut into large chunks

Gravy
1/4 C flour
3/4 C water

In a hot pot, sear pork chunks on all sides.
Then add remaining ingredients and simmer at least one hour until meat is tender. You can totally just put it on the back of the stove on low for a few hours and it only gets better.

Remove meat and set aside, strain peppercorns out of broth.

In a shaker, combine 1/4 C flour with 3/4 C water and shake to create a slurry. Whisk slurry into soy sauce/vinegar/pork broth, whisk over medium heat until gravy thickens. Add meat back to gravy.

Serve with rice.

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First, put those beautiful chunks of pork into a hot pan and sear on all sides.


There is more beautiful searing than this... but I guess I didn't get a pic...


Add the remaining vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, peppercorns, bay leaves and 1 cup of water.


Simmer at least one hour


Remove the meat and set aside.


Strain the broth to remove peppercorns.


Put 1/4C flour & 3/4C water into a shaker and shake into a slurry.


Add to strained broth and whisk until gravy thickens.


Add meat back to gravy.


This can stay on the stove on low heat until you're ready to serve it.



I have to say this was far and away the BEST adobo I've ever made! I don't know if I'll ever make Chicken Adobo again.

Boneless skinless chicken (what my family perfers) doesn't hold up to braising anywhere near as well as pork.

The tender flavorful melt-in-your-mouth pork was so delicious!

And the gravy!!! WOW!!! Silky, sour, so adobo-y... and thicker than the usual broth so it really sticks to the rice.

Our friend Mike said, "Sarap!"

I'll definitely be making this again!!

Teriyaki Sauce & Marinade

This teriyaki sauce is wicked easy and wicked good!!!

I'll never buy bottled teriyaki sauce again!!

This recipe is slightly adapted from allrecipes.com.



Teriyaki Sauce & Marinade
2/3 C mirin (Japanese sweet rice wine)
1 C soy sauce
4 1/2 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
1/3 C brown sugar
7 cloves garlic, grated
1 TBLS minced fresh ginger
1 dash cayenne pepper
black pepper to taste

Bring mirin to a boil in a saucepan over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for 10 minutes. Pour in soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and brown sugar. Add garlic, ginger, cayenne, and black pepper; simmer an additional 5 minutes. Store in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator.

This is what you'll need...


Bring mirin to a boil...


Whisk in remaining ingredients...


Simmer 5 minutes.

Store in the refrigerator in a tightly sealed container.



How easy is that??

This is wicked good and wicked easy!! I'll never use bottled teriyaki sauce again!!

Miso Soup

I LOVE Miso Soup! It's total comfort food for me. One sip and my eyes close, my lips curl into a smile, I say, "mmmmmmmm" and all the stress of the day melts away.

Miso Soup is also super insanely easy to make!!

This recipe is slightly adapted from Michelle Chen's recipe on allrecipes.com.



Miso Soup
2 tsp dashi granules
4 C water
3 TBLS miso paste
1 (8 ounce) package firm tofu, diced
1 sheet of nori (dried seaweed), cut into strips
2 green onions, sliced diagonally into 1/2 inch pieces
additional water to hydrate nori

In a small bowl combine nori strips with enough water to cover them. When they are re-hydrated, drain off excess water.
Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine dashi granules and water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium, and whisk in the miso paste. Stir in tofu and dashi strips. Add green onions to the soup. Simmer gently for 2 to 3 minutes before serving.

This is what you need


I cut a sheet of nori into strips and just put it into some water to rehydrate it. I didn't want it to soak up all of the broth of that soup by placing it in still dry.


A quart of water & dashi granules


3 tablespoons of miso paste


You can get this in the refrigerator section in your Asian market. It keeps forever in the fridge!

Whisk the miso paste into the dashi broth and bring to a boil.


Add tofu, green onions and seaweed and simmer a few more minutes.

It's ready to enjoy!


This would have also been great with a very thinly sliced mushroom or two!

Comfort food that only takes a few minutes!

What are your favorite comfort foods?

Asian Chicken Wings

So... I had 4 pounds of chicken wings left over that never got fried for the game.

What to do with them?

I certainly don't want to freeze them! I buy them from Whole Foods, because they are fresh and never frozen. So throwing them into my freezer for a later date just seems wrong.

Hot wings for dinner? Well... it certainly wouldn't be the first time!

But I decided something Asian sounded good.... so I started scouring the web.

I found this Emeril Lagasse recipe.



Roasted Asian Chicken Wings
4 pounds chicken wings
1 TBLS Emeril's Asian Essence I made my own... see below
1 tsp salt No need for this in addition to the Asian Spice Rub
1/2 tsp ground white pepper No need for this in addition to the Asian Spice Rub
2 C fresh orange juice
1 C canned pineapple juice
1 C sugar
1/2 C soy sauce
1/2 C mirin
2 TBLS orange zest
2 TBLS minced garlic
2 TBLS minced fresh ginger
2 TBLS minced green onions
1 TBLS sesame oil
3/4 tsp crushed red pepper
2 TBLS sesame seeds
2 TBLS diagonally sliced green onions, for garnish

Preheat the oven to 425F.

Line a baking sheet with sides with aluminum foil.

In a large skillet, combine everything except the chicken wings, Asian spice rub, sesame seeds and green onion. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved and the liquid has reduced to a syrup.

While the sauce is cooking, in a large bowl, season the chicken wings with the Asian Seasoning and toss until they are well coated. Spread the seasoned wings in the prepared baking sheet evenly and bake until browned, about 35 minutes.

Remove the wings from the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 350F.

Place the wings in a large, heat-proof bowl. Drizzle half the prepared sauce over the wings, reserving the other half, tossing to coat well. Sprinkle the sesame seeds over the wings and toss again. Place a wire cooling rack inside the large baking sheet lined with aluminum foil and arrange the coated wings on top of the rack. Return the pan to the oven and bake an additional 20 to 25 minutes, or until cooked through and crispy.

Arrange the wings on a large serving platter and top with sliced green onions. Serve immediately with the remaining sauce passed on the side for dipping.

Asian Spice Rub
2 1/2 TBLS paprika
2 TBLS salt
2 TBLS garlic powder
1 TBLS black pepper
1 TBLS onion powder
1 TBLS cayenne pepper
1 TBLS oregano
1 TBLS thyme
1 TBLS Chinese Five Spice

This makes a big batch. Save the rest for other Asian spice rub needs.

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So combine all the sauce ingredients in a skillet.


(I really need to filter those LEDs above my stove!)

Bring it to a boil.


Cook, stirring occasionally until sauce has reduced and is syrupy.

Time to prep the wings.


I always pat them dry, to make them crispier.


And mix with Asian Spice Rub.


Toss until well coated.


Spread them on prepared tray and bake.


Meanwhile, keep an eye on that sauce...


So the wings are browned... pull them out of the oven and reduce the temp to 350F.


Put them in a heat proof bowl...


And toss with half of the sauce.


Don't they look yummy already??

Arrange a cooking rack in the baking sheet.


Mine didn't quite fit! But it worked out ok. =)

Put those beautiful sticky wings on the rack.


And back into the oven for 20 - 25 minutes.


Mmmmmm...

Garnish with green onions and sesame seeds.




I served them with fried rice.


These wings were VERY sticky!

Typically... I hate sticky things... but they were soooo tasty I didn't care at all!!

Ok... I cared enough to go get a wet wash cloth to use at the table. But I wasn't going to let sticky keep me from these!

And check out that fried rice...


That was just a bag of frozen Asian veggies. There were water chestnuts, snap peas, edamame, baby corn, peppers, onions... a wicked yummy mix!

This dinner totally ROCKED! And the Asian Spice Rub is definitely a keeper too!!! I can't wait to put it on Asian BBQ Ribs!

Asian Spice Rub

I think this is the copy-cat recipe for Emeril's Asian Essence.

Asian Spice Rub
2 1/2 TBLS paprika
2 TBLS salt
2 TBLS garlic powder
1 TBLS black pepper
1 TBLS onion powder
1 TBLS cayenne pepper
1 TBLS oregano
1 TBLS thyme
1 TBLS Chinese Five Spice

This makes a big batch. Store in a tightly sealed container.

Great for all of your Asian spice rub needs.

I used it for Emeril's Roasted Asian Chicken Wings. But I can't wait to try it on Asian BBQ Ribs!

Leftover Stir Fry

Hey! Remember me?? I said I was back, then I pretty much disappeared again!

I think I'm just not quite as interested in cooking during the summer. Daylight Savings Time makes my schedule all wonky... being light later... YUCK!

Anyway!

This is a leftover from the 4th of July! Yeah... a WHOLE month ago! It's a good thing it's only been sitting in the computer, and not in the fridge!

Remember those awesome Smoked Ribs & Beer Can Chicken?

We had a ton of that leftover. I made two slabs of ribs, a whole chicken, plus burgers and dogs. And there were only 5 of us!

What to do with delicious smoky leftovers?

Jon suggested stir fry. He suggests that often. I like to do it with fresh veggies, so it's a lot of chopping for me. Being in summer lazy mode, I quickly dismissed it as too much work... and well... does smoky meat really 'go' with stir fry??

The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea! Well... not the idea of chopping lots of veggies... but the smoky meat in the stir fry.

So on my way home, I stopped at the store and grabbed a couple bags of frozen stir fry veggies.


Then I started pulling the meat off of the left over ribs.


Yum! Had to be sure to get lots of that salty/spicy/smoky bark!


Also some leftover Beer Can Chicken.


There's usually some kinda Asian noodles hiding in my pantry.


Saute up some onions & garlic in a little chile oil.


Throw in the shredded meat.




Add both kinds of Stir Fry Veggies plus some Asian sauces...
(I probably used soy sauce, oyster sauce & fish sauce)


Some cooked Asian noodles...




Top with some sesame seeds and it's dinner time!


Jon usually comes up with some pretty good dinner ideas... I just need to listen more often!