Braised Pork Feet and Chicken Hocks in Soy Sauce

中文菜谱：

红烧猪蹄鸡脚杆

Braised pork/ chicken/ beef in soy sauce are very traditional way to slow cook food in China.  Although the specific details vary from the south to the north; families to families, the essential ingredients remain the same.  Meat, soy sauce, rice cooking wine and ginger are a must for this dish. 

I learnt how to cook it by watching my grandma in the kitchen, starting with passing along soy sauce, washing ginger and building wood fire.  After a while, I could help with seasoning the meat and occasional stirring during simmer process.  I learnt from all these tiny things and daily chores that cooking can be so amazing and magical. 

The common ingredients to be braised are pork belly or other parts of pork, chicken, fish, shrimps and beef.  Technically most meat can be cooked this way.  I just personally prefer pork and chicken.

The chicken bones I use here are not really “bones”.  It is chicken hocks, the ankle part connecting chicken feet and drumsticks.  Not many Asian grocery stores sell it.  Whether and when you can buy it pretty much depends on your luck that day. (￣▽￣)”

Ingredients：

1 package of cut pork feet (about 2 to 3 pounds)
1 package of chicken bones
1 large piece of ginger root, cleaned and smashed
3 to 4 dried chili peppers，cut into pieces
1 small piece of cinnamon bark
3 to 4 star anies
1 to 2 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns
5 to 6 cloves
1 black cardamom，smashed
4 to 5 dried ginger
2 to 3 bay leaves
4 to 5 tablespoons rice cooking wine
salt to taste
1/4 to 1/3 cup soy sauce
1 to 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
2 to 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
water for cooking

Directions：

Clean pork feet and chicken bones and rinse well under running water.

Add dried chili peppers, star anises, Sichuan peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon, black cardamom, dried ginger and bay leaves to a piece of coffee filter paper.

Tie it up to be a spice bag

Fill a large pot with cold water.  Add cut pork feet.  Cook over high heat until water boils.  Continue cooking over high heat for 7 to 8 minutes.  Drain well and rinse with hot water.

Heat a cast iron soup pot over high heat.  Add 2 to 3 quarts of water, blanched pork feet, spice bag and rice cooking wine.

Cook until the water boils.

Cover with lid.  Reduce the heat to simmer about 90 minutes.

At the same time, blanch chicken bones in boiling water for 2 minutes.

After 90 minutes, tough tissues on pork feet gradually become tender.

Add chicken bones to cook together for another 30 to 40 minutes.

Add soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar and salt; cook together for another 5 minutes.  Tune up the heat to medium high.

Gently stir pork feet and chicken from time to time using a wood spoon.

When most the liquid in the pot has evaporated, remove from heat and serve immediately with pot. 

Anyone who hasn’t tried braised pork/chicken feet might consider it is bizarre and strange.  You have to try them yourself to know how amazing they taste.  After long hours’ braising, tough tissues and meat become soft and tender, but with a very special gelatin-like texture which makes to top of my favorite list.

I also stir fry some green vegetables to make it a delicious and nutritious meal.

Smoked Duck with Rudy’s BBQ Dry Rub

中文版菜谱：

熏鸭 （Rudy’s BBQ dry rub）

I brought back a bottle of dry rub from Rudy’s BBQ during our last visit. Their brisket and chicken BBQ tasted pretty awesome so i decided to buy their dry rub to try BBQ duck with it. Although duck is not on the menu of most BBQ restaurant, I started my experiment with it anyway because both my husband and I love duck meat so much more than chicken.  Guess what?  It turned out so great and tasty!  If you find it hard to believe, just take a look at the photos.  They would convince you how good it is (￣▽￣)”

Ingredients：

1 whole duck (about 5 to 6 pounds)
1/2 bottle of Rudy’s dry rub or your favorite brand (about 5 to 6 oz)
oak smoking chips

Directions：

Clean and rinse the duck under running water.  Pat dry with paper tower

When I was checking out in the BBQ store, I asked the cashier how much I should use for a brisket or a chicken.  She went to the person who was in charge of smoking who by the way was a very nice guy.  He told me that usually they use about 2 bottles’ amount dry rub on a whole large brisket. 

So I decide to use half bottle on my duck.

Sprinkle on duck

Massage the dry rub all over the duck, inside and out

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight

Rudy’s dry rub ingredients

The next day, preheat smoker to 225F/107C

Rudy’s use exclusively oak wood, so I go with oak wood chips too.  I always buy variety pack of smoking wood chips to go with different kinds of meat.

This tiny chicken roaster is such a great help in smoking chicken and ducks.  With it, the duck can stay vertical in the smoker so very part of duck is perfectly smoked.

Skew the duck with chicken roaster.  It works the same with chicken.

Smoke for about 5 hours or until the duck is golden brown.

Smoke coming out of the door and smoker

Make a quick inspect 3 hours into the smoking process.  If all the smoking wood chips have burnt down, refill the smoke box.

5 hours later

How good does that look?

Allow the duck to cool down and cut into small pieces with a sharp cleaver.

Smoked duck pairs better with beers.  But all I have in fridge is red wine.  That will do too.

Stewed Diced Beef Rough Flank with Daikon

中文菜谱：清汤牛腩炖萝卜

Whenever the weather gets cold, or when we are being hit by a winter storm, I make stew or soup.  That is a tradition I learn from my grandma’s kitchen.  I also learn how to stew beef rough flank from her.

Unlike regular beef flank, rough flank consists of tendon and tough tissues.  They are usually very tough and take a long time to cook.  I assume the slightly unpleasant look and long cooking time prohibit its popularity in America.  You can only find them in most Asian grocery stores but not in American ones.  You may also find beef flank in Vietnamese pho too.

Don’t try to substitute with regular flank.  After proper long cooking time, beef rough flank can be very tasty.  Its attaching tendon will become soft and tender but still a little bit al-dente.  That is why I like it so much.  The texture and beefy flavor are very charming and additive.  

Ingredients：

1 large piece of beef rough flank（weighs about 2 pounds, sold in most Asian grocery stores）
1 piece of ginger root, smashed
1 to 2 bay leaves
1 star anise
2 tablespoons rice cooking wine
1 daikon
about 3 quarts water
salt to taste
chopped green onion
chopped cilantro

Directions：

Clean and trim extra fat away from beef rough flank.  Soak it in cold water for 2 hours.  Change the water twice in between.

With a sharp knife, cut the flank into 1 by 2 inches size

Peel and cut the daikon into the same size

Fill a cast iron with water.  Add beef flank, ginger and rice cooking wine.  Cook over high heat until it boils.  During this process, you need to skim off any impurities and dark bubbles that come to the top. 

Cover with lid.  Reduce the heat to simmer for 4 to 5 hours.  The though tissues will break down after long simmer time and become soft and tender.

This Le Creuset 4 1/4 quarts soup pot is one of my favorite pots in the kitchen.  It does great job in stewing and making soup. 

2 hours into simmering, add star anise and bay leaves

4 to 5 hours later, the broth becomes beautiful golden color.  That is how you know it is a good pot of stew.  Pressure cooker can’t do that for you.  Only time and slow simmering can make it happen.

Turn up the heat; add daikon and salt to taste.

Cook for another 15 to 20 minutes.  It is time to enjoy!

Sprinkle with chopped green onion and cilantro.  Serve hot immediately.

Bon appetite!

Stir-fried Minced Pork and Lotus Root

中文版菜谱：

肉末炒藕丁

Lotus root might be an exotic ingredient for most American people.  Trust me, it taste very good.  Fresh lotus root is very crunchy, a bit starchy and sweet.  It has a mild nutty earthy and fruity taste.  It is can eaten raw or cooked in soup, stir-fry, and even desserts.   

There are two kinds of lotus roots.  One is crunchier, nuttier, and more refreshing.  We usually use it in stir-fry.  The other kind is more on the starchy side, which taste better in soups.  Most lotus roots available in Asian grocery are first kind, the crunchy type.  We buy them a lot, not just because it taste good on itself, but also because its mild flavor goes with almost everything in the kitchen.

One of my favorite ways is stir-fry lotus root with minced pork.  The pork fat add deep rich flavor to crunchy lotus root.

Ingredients：

1 medium size lotus root
200 to 300g minced pork
1teapsoon Sichuan peppercorns
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
1 small trunk of ginger root, chopped
1 tablespoon rice cooking wine
1 to 2 teaspoons oyster sauce
1 to 2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon dark soy sauce
1 handful dried chili peppers, chopped
freshly ground black pepper
2 to 3 tablespoon vegetable oil for stir-fry
salt to taste

Directions：

Peel and dice the lotus root.

Part of the seasonings needed in this recipe

Heat a cast iron wok over high heat.  Add oil and then pork along with ginger and garlic.  Sautee until the pork turns a little bit golden brown.

Add chili peppers.  Sautee for one minute

Add oyster sauce, rice cooking wine and black pepper.  Sautee for one minute

Add diced lotus root, and then soy sauce and dark soy sauce.  Sautee for another couple minutes.

Serve hot immediately

The dish is savory, crunchy, a little bit spicy, a little bit sweet, and loaded with umami O(∩_∩)O~

Savory and Spicy Pork Skin Jelly

中文版菜谱：水晶皮冻

Can you think of other ways to enjoy pork skin besides pork rinds?  I can!  You can braise it; or put it into soup; or make dumplings with it.  One of my favorite ways is to make savory and spicy pork skin jelly. 

It is firmer, meatier, and a bit more al dente than regular jelly.  Does it sound a little less bizarre now? O(∩_∩)O~

It is quite easy to make; just a few simple steps.  But it takes time to clean pork skin and wait for it to set at the end.

Ingredients：

2 pounds of pork skin (available in Asian grocery stores. I actually used only about 1 1/4 pounds)
3 to 4 quarts of water plus extra for cleaning
2 tablespoon rice cooking wine
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 large piece of ginger root, sliced
salt to taste

Spice bag：

2 to 3 star anises
1 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns
1 black cardamom pod
2 to 3 pieces dried ginger
4 to 5 dried chili peppers , cut into small pieces
1 to 2 bay leaves
1 small piece of cinnamon stick

Spicy dressing:

Chili oil
soy sauce
vinegar
salt
sugar
minced garlic
chopped green onion
sesame oil

Directions：

2 packages of pork skin yield a lot of jelly.  If you are planning to try just a little bit before deciding like it or not, reduce the amount to half or even to a quarter of what I use here.

Rinse the pork skins well under running water and boil in the pot for a couple minutes.

Rinse again.  With a sharp kitchen knife, remove any excess pork fat attaching to the skins.  Make sure to remove them all.  The texture of jelly depends on it.  If too much fat remains in the soup, the jelly will become greasy and won’t taste as good either.

Cut into little strips

Gather all the spices in a piece of coffee filter paper.  Tie it up.

Add water and spice bag to a cast iron pot.  I use a Le Creuset 4 1/4 soup pot.  It is one of my favorite pots in the kitchen.  It does great job in stewing, braising, and soup making.  I love it so much that I bought two of them, one in yellow color and the other one in red.

Cook over high heat until water boils.  Reduce the heat to simmer for 45 to 60 minutes or until pork skin becomes very tender.  Add rice cooking wine, salt and ground white pepper to taste.  

Discard the spice bag and ginger slices.  Pour the pork skin broth mixture into a large glass bowl.

Wait for the broth to cool down and then refrigerate for 4 to 6 hours.

Unmold it

With a sharp knife, cut the pork jelly into bite sizes.

Isn’t it beautiful?

I make dipping sauce with the pepper chili oil.  If you don’t want to make it from scratch, you can buy from Asian grocery stores.  There are dozens of different varieties to choose from.

Dipping sauce is quite simple.  It consists of chili oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, sesame oil and salt.

Sprinkle with freshly chopped green onions

It tastes good on its own.  It also goes well with crunch vegetables like cucumber O(∩_∩)O~

Or like purple napa.  We see purple cabbage all the time, but it is the first time I see purple napa