Crispy Pork Belly

中文：脆皮烧肉

Crispy pork belly is a very traditional dish in Southern China.  They are usually sold in BBO store or Dim Sum restaurants.  It is also one of my childhood favorites. 

There are Chinese BBQ stores in troy area that sell crispy pork belly too.  I always buy some whenever we are in town.  But the favors and crispiness are not so consistent.  Sometimes it tastes good, while some other times it quite unbearable.  So I started to DIY crispy pork belly at home so that I can make sure it is hot and crispy, just the way I like it.   

There are some secrets to make pork skin extra crispy.  Some use baking soda, and some people use vinegar.  I use both to make my own crispy pork belly.  And the results show vinegar works slightly better than baking soda.

（Reference links listed as below.  My thanks to the original authors.

 http://bbs.wenxuecity.com/cooking/1397482.html

http://bbs.wenxuecity.com/cooking/1390207.html）

Ingredients：

2 pieces of pork belly (about 2pounds. Bigger pieces would work better )
1 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/2  teaspoon five-spice powder
1/4  teaspoon ginger powder
1/2  to 1teaspoon sugar
salt to taste
1 1/2  to 2 teaspoon rice cooking wine
1 teaspoon soy sauce
2 teaspoon vinegar
Coarse sea salt

 

Directions：

In a small bowl, whisk together ground white pepper, ginger powder, five-spice powder, sugar and salt. 

Rinse the pork belly and pat dry with paper towel.

With a meat tenderizer, punch the pork skin repeatedly until the skin is covered with tiny holes. Try not to punch too hard.  We want the needles from meat tenderizer just to pierce through the skin, not the whole piece.  If you don’t have a meat tenderizer at hand, a fork, or some metal skewers will do the job too. 

 

Place the pork belly skin side down on a cutting board or large plate. Rub the meat with rice cooking wine and soy sauce, and then apply the dry rub mix.  Do not rub on the skin side.  

Turn them over with skin side facing up.  Do not cover.  Refrigerate overnight. 

Heat a toaster oven to 400F/ 204°C.  

Wrap the pork belly tightly with foil.

Sprinkle a pinch of baking soda on top of pork skin.

Cover the skin top with a layer of salt.  Both coarse salt and table salt work fine. 

Bake in the toaster oven for 15 to 20 minutes. Bigger piece of pork belly may require longer baking time. 

The salt will form some sort of crust.  Remove the salt crust. 

Continue to boil for 15 to 20 minutes or until the pork skin pops. 

Slice into thick pieces. Enjoy! 

Baking soda is one way to get crispy pork skin.  I also try using vinegar, which is also a very good alternative.

Preheat the toaster oven to 400F/204°C.  

Wrap the pork belly tightly with foil.  With a brush, brush the vinegar to pork skin.  And then cover the skin a layer of salt.  Both coarse salt and table salt will be fine.

The rest is the same.  Bake in toaster oven for 15 to 20 minutes.  Remove the salt crust on top.  

Continue to boil for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the skin pops. 

It is crunchier than the ones baked with baking soda.  And the texture is better too. 

You can enjoy them with hot sauce; 

Or with hoisin sauce; O (∩_∩) O~ 

Shrimp Cocktail

中文： 鸡尾虾

Is there any appetizer simpler and easier than this one?  I don’t think so.  I love to serve shrimp cocktail when I host a party or have companies because it takes no time to prepare and look great! 

Cocktail sauce is also sold in any grocery store.  I just prefer to make my own version because I like it spicy with a gentle hint of tomato taste. O(∩_∩)O~

Ingredients：

1 pound fresh or frozen jumbo shrimps
1/4 cup siracha hot sauce
1 to 2 tablespoons ketchup
freshly ground black pepper
salt to taste

Cook the shrimps in boiling water for two minutes.  Drain well and place them in a large plate. 

In a small bowl, combine siracha hot sauce, ketchup, black pepper and salt.  Whisk them together and it is ready to be served with shrimps together.

It is so easy that even people with no cooking skills can nail it too.

Grilled Peach with Ice cream

Summer is coming! O(∩_∩)O~。。。More and more fresh seasonal fruits are popping up in the market.  I bought some yellow peaches on my last grocery shopping trip.  They turn out to be quite tasteless and disappointing.  So I give them a little makeover.  I grill them with brown sugar and top with a couple scoops of ice cream.  Wow! What a huge difference in flavors!  

Ingredients:

4 to 6 yellow peaches
3 to 4 tablespoons brown sugar
1 to 2 teaspoons cooking oil
a couple scoops of ice cream (I prefer vanilla or coffee flavor ice cream)

Directions：

Rinse and pat dry the peaches.  Remove peach cores and cut each peach into 6 wedges. 

In a big bowl, toss the peach wedges with oil and brown sugar until they are evenly coated. 

Heat a grilled pan on medium high.  When the pan gets hot, places peach wedges onto the grill pan cut side down.  Grill about 2 minutes each sides or until they get beautiful grill mark and brown sugar gets caramelized. 

Remove the pan from heat.  Transfer peaches to a bowl or plate, and top them with a couple scoops of ice cream.  I use coffee ice cream this time.  They really go well together. 

Actually you can grill a lot of other fruits in the same way.  But I think the peaches work a lot better than others. O(∩_∩)O~ 

Raisin Brioche Bread

Both my husband and I prefer rich, sweet, fluffy and soft bread.  And I always prefer to make them from scratch at home, not just because they taste better when freshly out the oven but also because I have so much fun in the bread making process.  It feels kind of relaxing and calming when I make bread in my own kitchen.  

I always make them in loaf shape so that I can use the leftover to make brioche French toast which is another breakfast favorite in the house.  (I posted French toast with blueberry sauce before: http://www.yankitchen.com/blog/cinnamon-swirl-french-toast). 

Brioche bread ingredients：

320 g bread flour
2 tablespoons honey
40 g butter, softened and diced
2 large eggs
130 g whole milk
40 g sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon yeast
1/8 teaspoon salt
raisins
brown sugar
ground cinnamon
egg wash
white sesame seeds

The whole process is quite similar to the raisin bread I posted before:http://www.yankitchen.com/blog/2014/10/18/2-1

 

Directions：

Heat the milk in microwave for 30 seconds; add the milk to bread machine container; dissolve yeast into the warm milk; and let it sit for 5 minutes.

Add eggs, flour, sugar, salt and honey; start dough cycle.  My bread machine (Amazon this one) will knead the dough for 20 minutes and proof for an hour.  When kneading is done, abort the cycle; add diced butter; and start the dough cycle again. It will knead for another 20 minutes, which should be able to get the dough past window panel test.

When the dough is doubled in size, transfer it to a well dusted wooden board.  Gently press down and knead for a minutes; cover and let it sit for 10 minutes.

Divide the dough into three equal pieces.  Roll each piece out; sprinkle with brown sugar, cinnamon and raisins; and then roll them up from one end.

Braid all three rolls into a large loaf and place it in a greased loaf pan (amazon link); cover; and let it proof again for another 30 to 50 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350F/204 C.

Brush the bread with egg wash.  Sprinkle with sesame seeds.  Bake for 30 to 35 minutes.  Cover the bread with a large piece of foil if necessary to prevent dark color on top.

Cool the bread on the cooling rack.  Store the bread in a bread bag.

My favorite way to enjoy it is to slice it thinly and tear them apart with my fingers.  

Raspberry Yogurt

Did I mention that the best yogurt I have ever had is my own blueberry yogurt?  Well, the raspberry yogurt here is equally good if not better. 

I love making yogurt at home so that I can have as much berry sauce/jam as I want.  The best part is that no additives are added!   We all know yogurt is really great for digestion and health.  So we should start asking “got yogurt”? 

ingredients：

4 cups of whole milk
1 pack plain Greek yogurt (172g)
2 cups frozen raspberries
1/3 to 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 to 3 tablespoon blueberries
1 to 2 tablespoon water
fresh raspberries
confectioner’s sugar

I have posted homemade yogurt before.  For more detailed information: http://www.yankitchen.com/blog/homemade-blueberry-yogurt

Directions：

Microwave the milk on high until it boils.  It might take 6 to 8 minutes give or take depending on the microwave oven. 

When the milk cools down, remove the milk skin on top.

Empty the plain Greek yogurt to a large clean bowl; whisk until it becomes smooth and runny. 

Gradually add milk while whisking.

Distribute evenly into the glass jars that come with yogurt maker.  Or you can use any small glass jars as long as they can fit in the yogurt maker.

over with lids and place them in the yogurt maker (buy from AMAZON).  Turn it on.  In 5 to 7 hours, transfer them to refrigerator to settle down overnight.  You will have 7 jars of tasty plain yogurt the next day. 

Leave them in the yogurt maker longer if you prefer firmer yogurt texture. 

When the yogurt maker is doing its job, we can make raspberry sauce.

Combine raspberries, blueberries, water, brown sugar and lemon juice in a small pot; heat over medium high heat until it boils.  Reduce the heat to medium low; cook until the sauce thickens up; stir from time to time to prevent burning on the bottom.

Raspberries will lose their beautiful bright red color once cooked for a certain amount of time.  so I add blueberries to make the color more vibrant.  Just a couple tablespoons of blueberries will do the job.  Don’t add too much, otherwise it is going to be dark red or purple instead of red. 

Remove the raspberry sauce from heat.  Allow it to cool down before transfer to a mason jar.  Seal the jar and store in the refrigerator.  It should be able to last for a week.

Add one layer of raspberry sauce to a glass bowl or jar, add one layer of yogurt, and repeat it again.  Sprinkle on top with fresh raspberries and powder sugar.

Isn’t it pretty?