inuyaki » pork

Homemade Pork Tocino

arnold — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 21:46:19 +0000

A few weeks ago, I got this urge to make my tocino, the sweet cured pork that’s a staple Philippine breakfast meat. It’s probably most commonly served as tosilog, which is portmanteau of tocino, sinangag (garlic fried rice), and itlog (eggs). (I discuss “silogs” in my Best Breakfast Ever post from a few years ago.)

Tosilog — the breakfast of champions (from Cherry Garden in Fremont, CA)

My first attempt at tocino used the simple salt/sugar/achuete cure from the book Memories of Philippine Kitchens by Chef Romy Dotoran and Amy Besa of New York’s famous-but-now-closed Cendrillon. but that recipe didn’t work for me at all. The tocino ended up being way too salty, and it was almost inedible. (There’s a good chance that the recipe’s failure was my fault, so I’ll have to revisit it one of these days.)

While discussing my tocino plans with a couple other food bloggers on Twitter, Mark Manguerra of No Special Effects said that he’d always want to try Simply Anne’s tocino recipe, so I decided to give it a shot. In short, the recipe is good and with a few adjustments, the tocino was exactly what I wanted.

Pork Tocino

(adapted from Simply Anne’s.)

3 lb. boneless pork shoulder roast
1¼ cups pineapple juice
½ cup ketchup
½ cup lemon-lime soda
1/3 cup light soy sauce
2 cups brown sugar
1 Tablespoon garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

Directions

Freeze pork shoulder roast for an hour or so to firm it up so that it’s easier to slice. Cut 1/4-inch slices of pork shoulder and place in a one gallon zipper-lock plastic bag.
Mix the rest of the ingredients in bowl and then add to the meat. Seal the bag, doing your best to remove excess air. Let the pork cure in the refrigerator for a 4-5 days, flipping over the bag every day or so.
After curing, you can either cook the meat or portion them off into smaller bags and freeze them.
To cook the tocino, add a little water, marinade and a few slices of meat to a skillet. Over medium heat, let the liquid boil off and then fry the meat for a couple more minutes to caramelize it. There’s a lot of sugar in the marinade so make sure you don’t burn the meat.
You can also grill the tocino, which is my ideal method, by searing both sides on a grill over high heat and then letting them finish cooking over low or indirect heat. You can replicate this method indoors using a grill pan to sear and a low oven (around 250F) to finish.

Pan frying tocino is traditional, but I prefer it grilled.

There’s a lot of tocino in that picture, isn’t there? I’ll show you what I did with it in my next post… :)

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Chicharrones (Fried Pork Rinds)

arnold — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 00:04:33 +0000

In my world, there is no finer snack than some chicharrones, a.k.a. fried pork rinds. It’s something I’ve been eating since I was a kid, and Filipinos love it with sukang sili (chili vinegar) and beer.

Over the past year, chicharrones have been embraced by the “mainstream” through the efforts of chefs like Ryan Farr of 4505 Meats, whose chicharrones, despite my initial apprehensions, are other worldly. They’re incredibly light and when they’re fresh, they snap, crackle, and pop in your mouth like porky Rice Krispies.

Because they’re so cheap and readily available near me, I’d never considered making chicharrones at home until a couple weeks ago. I had some pork skin left over after removing it to making the Momofuku Pork Belly, and it would be a shame to waste such a nice piece of pork skin. There’s also a recipe in the Momofuku cookbook since they serve a piece of chicharron to every guest as an amuse bouche at Momofuku Ko.

The process is pretty simple. First, put the pig skin in a pot of water and boil it for about an hour a half, then chill it in the refrigerator for a few hours.

Pig skin after chillin’ out overnight.

Use a spoon to scrape off any excess fat left on the skin and put it in a food dehydrator for 12 hours. It should look like a brown piece of plastic.

Break this into small pieces and fry them up.

Next, break the dehydrated pig skin into 1×2-inch pieces. This doesn’t have to be exact, as the small pieces make nice chicharrones, too. Heat some oil (preferably one with a high smoke point) to between 390-400F in a deep pot. Drop a piece of pig skin into the oil and agitate it a bit until it puffs up. This should take about 10 seconds. Fry each piece one at a time, so they don’t stick together. Here’s a short iPhone video I shot to give you an idea of how long it takes.

After frying, season the hot chicharrones with a mixture of equal parts togarashi (Japanese 7-spice powder), sugar, and kosher salt. Serve them hot or at room temperature. You should eat them within a few days when they’re still crunchy, but I doubt these will last more than a few minutes. :)

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Cook the Book: Momofuku – Pork Belly Buns

arnold — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:05:47 +0000

It’s Day 2 of Momofuku Week at Inuyaki and today’s post on Pork Belly Buns is a great way to use the Pork Belly I wrote about yesterday.

Momofuku Pork Belly Buns

The Momofuku pork buns quickly (and inadvertently) became one of Noodle Bar’s signature items, and it’s nice to be able to recreate them at home. It’s basically a steamed bun with slices of pork belly, quick-pickled cucumbers, hoisin sauce, and green onions. My wife decided to pickle both cucumbers and carrots, and she julienned both instead of slicing them because it would be prettier.

The recipe for the steamed buns is in the book (link below), but I didn’t have time to make them, so I picked some up in the freezer section of a local Asian supermarket. They’re a little too thick and not as good as fresh, but they did the job. The second time I made this, I found a different style of buns in the refrigerated section of the market that were bigger and rounder and accommodated 2 slices of pork belly easily.

Steam the buns for a couple minutes until they’re heated through. While the buns are steaming, cut 1/2-inch slices of belly across the grain and warm them up before using—I grilled them in a cast iron skillet for about a minute a side. Depending on how big your buns are, you may have to cut the belly slices in half to get them to fit on the bun.

To assemble the pork belly buns, open up a bun and brush some hoisin sauce on top and bottom halves. Put the pork belly slices on the bottom half and pickled cucumbers and carrots on the top half. Garnish with a little green onion and eat immediately.

For reference, here’s what the pork belly buns look like when the restaurant serves them up (from our trip to Noodle Bar in September).

The “real” Momofuku Pork Belly Buns

Download PDF excerpts of these recipes (via Time Out New York):

Tomorrow: Ginger Scallion Noodles

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Cook the Book: Momofuku – Pork Belly

arnold — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 07:10:01 +0000

Momofuku Week is a new series I made up yesterday after realizing an epic post I was writing about cooking from the Momofuku book was going to be too long. I decided to break up the posts over the next week since I’ve made enough dishes from the book to cover about a week’s worth of posts already.

Pork belly fresh out of the oven.

Momofuku’s pork belly is really easy to make, which is good because it’s used in a lot of other recipes in the book, including the famous pork buns, ramen, and sam gyup sal ssam. This was the only the second time I’ve ever made pork belly, and it’s safe to say that it was rousing success. (My first attempt at cooking pork belly was a sous vide version that was good, but I didn’t know what the hell I was doing at the time either.) I also have a piece of pork skin in the freezer waiting to become chicharrones. If I’m lucky, that might be the end of this week. :)

A skinless three-pound slab of pork belly sits in a simple 1:1 salt/sugar cure for between 6 to 24 hours. After discarding any excess liquid, put it roasting or baking dish and roast it fat side up in a 450F oven for an hour, basting it with rendered fat halfway through. Then reduce the oven temperature to 250F and cook it for another hour or so until the pork belly is tender and has—as the book says—”a down pillow-like yield to a firm finger poke.”

After cooking, save the rendered fat and cool the belly till you can handle it. Wrap it in plastic or foil and refrigerate until needed—the belly is easier to cut into uniform pieces when it’s cold. When you’re ready to use the pork belly, cut 1/2-inch slices from the short end of the belly (against the grain) and warm it up. I like to use a cast iron skillet over medium heat to lightly char each piece of pork belly on both sides.

Download a PDF excerpt of this recipe (via Time Out New York):

Pork Belly

Tomorrow: Momofuku Pork Belly Buns.

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The Porky Delights of PigEat Fest 2009

arnold — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 10:22:23 +0000

Last Saturday, I attended the fundraiser known as PigEat Fest at San Fransisco’s Lake Merced. Benefiting the SF Food Bank, PigEat Fest is the brainchild of my friend Euge and is the fourth fundraiser he’s organized for the SF Food Bank over the years. Every dollar raised equals $9 worth of food, and PigEat Fest raised more than $2,500 ($24,500 in food). In total, Euge’s fundraisers have raised $11,500 for a whopping $103,500 of food. Good job, Euge!

*DROOL*

Of course, the stars of the day were two Clark Summit Farm pigs that were alive two days before the event, so they were extremely fresh. They were cooked in La Caja Chinas by AJ, who had previous experience roasting pigs in the Chinese boxes, including a stint in the kitchen at Ad Hoc for their Swine & Wine dinner in March. You’re in good hands when AJ is in charge.

The pigs took around five hours to cook and were definitely worth the wait. I’ll just let the pictures roll by now. :)

When we arrived at around 12noon, the pigs were well on their way.

When the pig reaches temperature, it’s flipped over and the skin is scored.

Look how pretty the pig is when the skin crisps up.

Brains…

and booty!

The puffy ears were prized delicacies.

Gimme that skin!

The pigs were served with three delicious sauces, all courtesy of AJ: a mojo made from the roasted pig’s juices, a rich Filipino lechon sauce, and a North Carolina-style vinegar sauce. One pig was more than enough to feed the approximately 100 people in attendance, which meant that many of us took some of the second pig home with us. A lot of us, myself included, hovered around the table like vultures as the smaller more delectable pieces of meat (i.e. cheeks) and crispy pig skin were made available to us. (I should note that there was plenty of other food available since attendees were encouraged to bring food and drink to share with the group.)

To say that PigEat Fest was a success for both the eaters present and the SF Food Bank is a mild understatement. Can’t wait to do it again soon!

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Ad Hoc Going Whole Hog at ‘Swine and Wine’

arnold — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 08:04:50 +0000

Ad Hoc is hosting its first-ever whole hog dinner on Wed., March 25. The four-course, prix-fixe dinner dubbed “Swine and Wine” revolves around Ross Shoop pigs that are roasted Cuban Style in a Caja China.

Produce for the meal will be straight from The French Laundry garden up the street. Former TFL pastry chef Claire Clark is still around and will be creating a dessert, but it looks like this meal is her last hurrah. Bohemian Creamery will be supplying the cheese and Dave Miner of the Miner Family Vineyard is providing the wine. All food producers will be on hand to talk to guests at this event.

This special meal is $65, which includes wine and all other beverages. First seatings are at 5:30 and 6:00pm and second seatings are at 8:00 and 8:30pm. Call Ad Hoc now (707.944.2487) if you’re interested in attending because space is filling up fast.

(Picture from the Ad Hoc Web site)

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Pulled Pork (and Smoking Flower Pots)

arnold — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 07:05:52 +0000

My Lazy Barbecue posts (beef ribs and tri-tip) were an easy and convenient way to make barbecue in an oven, but it also stoked my dormant curiosity about smoking meats…with real smoke. We’re technically not allowed to grill or barbecue where we live, so I started looking for ways to build a smoker that didn’t look so conspicuous. Google eventually led me to an old episode of Alton Brown’s Good Eats where he made a smoker out of a terra cotta flower pot and bowl and an electric hot plate. I’ll write more about the smoker in another post since i want this one to focus on this:

(I’ll talk about the ribs some other time…let’s just discuss the pulled pork.)

Making pulled pork is pretty simple. For this attempt, I coated the entire pork butt with yellow mustard and then sprinkled the meat with a barbecue spice rub and let sit in the refrigerator uncovered for 18 hours. Generally, pork butt is smoked for more than 12 hours at a fairly low temperature (usu. between 225-250F) until the meat reaches a temperature of 195F.

From what I’ve read, the meat stops “absorbing” smoke at around the 3–4 hour mark and any time after that just adds to the smokey bark that accumulates on the meat. Since I was using an electric hot plate and didn’t want to leave it on overnight, I smoked the meat for around 4 hours at an average temp of 240F and then double wrapped it in heavy duty foil and put it in a 225F oven to finish.

The total cooking time was around 16 hours, and after I took it out of the oven, I put it in an empty ice chest where it rested until I was ready to pull the pork and serve it. Here’s what it looked like after removing it from the foil. The “gap” in the meat is where the shoulder bone used to be.

I served the pork butt with an easy homemade barbecue sauce. The recipe is from Emeril, who’s not one of my usual sources, but I was looking for a vinegary, Carolina-style sauce, and the ingredient list looked about right. It uses equal parts ketchup and apple cider vinegar so it’s very balanced but with a little vinegary kick. I’ve seen other recipes that use the same ingredients but with more vinegar than ketchup. Overall, it was a really good sauce, but I definitely want to try something more vinegary next time.

One thing I wasn’t very conscientious of was the internal temperature of the pork since I was using my probe thermometer to monitor the smoker temp while I was making some ribs. The finishing temp was above 195F when I pulled it out of the oven, and though it tasted great, certain bits of meat were softer than other parts. This just means I need invest in a few more thermometers so that I can do some proper multitasking. Another issue is controlling the heat of the smoker. I was able to maintain a steady temp of around 240F pretty easily, but I really want to get it down to a consistent temperature of 225F.

Overall, for a first attempt, I thought this came out really well, and the smokiness was perfect. I’m really looking forward to doing this again and experimenting even further. If any of you have advice or suggestions, I’d love to hear them!

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The Bacon Flowchart

arnold — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:39:05 +0000

I found this on Flickr, but don’t know its origins. Anyway, that doesn’t matter. Just click on the picture so you can read it.

It’s funny.

I swear.

Bacon Flowchart, originally uploaded by ChrisL_AK.

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The Oinkster

arnold — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:19:44 +0000

When I’m home in SoCal, heading out to Eagle Rock isn’t normally on the agenda, especially for food. But when some friends told me about The Oinkster’s house-cured pastrami sandwiches and ube milk shakes, Eagle Rock started sounding mighty nice.

The Oinkster is the brainchild of Andre Guerrero, a Filipino American chef who’s a veteran of the Southern California restaurant scene. His other restaurant, Max in Sherman Oaks, offers contemporary Pan-Asian fine dining that’s a stark contrast to The Oinkster’s laid-back, order-at-the-counter vibe. (We also took my parents to Max for a Mother’s/Father’s Day dinner, so basically it was an Andre Guerrero weekend.) We ended up going to Oinkster twice in four days and were able to try a good cross section of the menu.

The Oinkster Pastrami sandwich is a thing of beauty—pastrami with Gruyere and a red cabbage slaw. The pastrami is cured for two weeks (the old-fashioned way) according to a recipe Guerrero developed over a period of two years. It’s not a melt-in-your-mouth pastrami like they have at Katz’s in New York, but it’s definitely the some of best pastrami I’ve had on the West Coast.

Aside from the sandwiches, the pastrami also tops the Royale burger, and it’s also featured in their excellent chili. If you’re from Southern California, you’ve likely had a chiliburger at one of the many Original Tommy’s hamburger stands that are down here. Tommy’s chili is legendary in L.A., so it may be blasphemous of me to say this, but…The Oink’s chili is so much better. In fact, I don’t know what I really saw in Tommy’s chili other than the novelty of it. I went back to Tommy’s with my wife a few months ago, and on its own, the chili reminded me of dog food. It really needs to be paired with fries or a burger. The Oink’s chili can definitely stand on it’s own, and it has a freshness that you’ll never get from Tommy’s chili.

The BBQ Pulled Pork sandwich features soy/honey-brined pork that’s slow roasted and smoked and topped with red cabbage slaw and caramelized onions. The pork is nice and tender on its own, but my wife said it’s like Kalua Pig without the salt. When you pair it with The Oink’s own vinegary Carolina BBQ sauce, it’s just about perfect. Make sure you get some at the counter when you’re getting your other condiments…the first time we went, we forgot the sauce because we didn’t know it was on the counter and the bottles weren’t labeled very well. Instead, we used the house-made Oinkster Mustard as a substitute, which was fine, but not as good as the Carolina sauce.

Guerrero prides himself on using Kennebec Potatoes for his Belgian Fries, which he says are the same potatoes used at In-N-Out. I know many people who don’t like In-N-Out’s fries, but I’m definitely a fan, and I liked The Oink’s fries a lot. They use the traditional Belgian double-fry method to keep the fries crispy and fluffy, and they pair up nicely with The Oink’s chipotle ketchup and garlic aioli, and of course, it goes great with the aforementioned chili. The rotisserie chicken, also pictured above, was really good, but I like my birds to have a crispier skin a la Zankou Chicken.

There’s a wide selection of other desserts all baked by Guerrero’s pastry chef girlfriend, Jan Purdy. They include the excellent peanut butter and jelly cupcake, a very popular item so snap one up if they’re in the dessert case, and a nice carrot cupcake. Next time, i’m going to try the brownies and the lemon bars.

But if it’s your first trip to The Oink, you must christen the occasion with an Ube Shake. Ube’s going to sound weird to most people because it’s a purple yam native to the Philippines, but it’s actually very popular in desserts, especially ube ice cream. The ube shake is rich and creamy and is a beautiful shade of light purple. If you’re not very hungry, I think the Ube Shake could actually serve as a meal replacement instead of dessert. Think of it as a Filipino Jamba Juice.

I’m going back to SoCal in July for a wedding at Occidental College which is very close to The Oinkster. Sounds like I’ll need an ube shake to cool off just before wedding.

INFORMATION
The Oinkster
2005 Colorado Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90041 map
323.257.3892
Web site

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Ad Hoc (10.07.07)

arnold — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 16:24:32 +0000

We’ve been trying to stay away from Ad Hoc until my birthday (and fried chicken night) on the 22nd, but last weekend, my friend Patty called and said she was going to be in the Bay Area before going home to Thailand, and she really wanted to go to Ad Hoc. Who was I to refuse?

Garbure
cannelini beans, haricots verts, savoy cabbage
sweet potatoes and butternut squash

Snake River Farms
Braised Pork Short Ribs
on faro with toasted pecans, shaved celery
and splenda apple sauce

Gubeen
spiced concord grape jelly
baguette croutons

Ice Cream Sundaes
candied pecans, fresh blueberries
chocolate and caramel sauce

This particular visit was notable because the cheese course ended up being a pseudo-chemistry lesson. Gubeen, a pungent cow’s milk cheese from Ireland, was paired with a spicy housemade Concord grape jelly and crispy baguette croutons. Gubeen smells and tastes kinda like garbage, and eating it on its own wasn’t very pleasant. I almost didn’t want to try another bite. But when you combine the Gubeen with the jelly and the croutons, you see why this pairing works. The jelly was more like a grape syrup with a hint of cayenne for heat, and it cut the intensity of the Gubeen, making it a lot more palatable. It’s definitely not the best cheese course I’ve had at Ad Hoc, but it was certainly the most interesting.

This was also the first time I’ve had soup as a starter at Ad Hoc. The Garbure, a light soup featuring cannelini beans, haricots verts, savoy cabbage, sweet potatoes and butternut squash, was hearty and delicous without being too filling. The main course was Snake River Farms pork short ribs, which were excellent. Prepared sous vide, the pork was juicy and tender and the sweet apple flavor really came through. The rib bones were also included, which contained some of the best fatty meat of the evening. It was served on top of faro, a barley-like “supergrain” that apparently fed the ancient Egyptians, but a vegetable side dish was nowhere to be found, which was unusual for Ad Hoc. Some greens would have been nice.

All in all, another solid meal at Ad Hoc, but I’m really looking forward to my birthday fried chicken.

INFORMATION
Ad Hoc
6476 Washington St.
Yountville, CA 94599 map
707.944.2487

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Best Breakfast Ever – Silogs

arnold — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 05:18:02 +0000

Forget Belgian waffles, fluffy buttermilk pancakes, brioche french toast, omelettes, country sausage and whatever else most people eat for breakfast. In my book, there’s no better way to start the day than with a silog, a Filipino breakfast of garlic fried rice, topped with a couple over-easy eggs and your choice of sweet or salty meats.

Filipinos love to combine words and names (don’t you know someone somewhere named Marivic?). Silog is a suffix referring to the fried rice (sinangag) and the eggs (itlog), and the dishes are named accordingly: tapsilog (tapa, the original silog) tosilog (tocino), adobosilog (chicken adobo), longsilog (longanisa), SPAMsilog – (SPAM!), litsilog (lechon), friedchixsilog (fried chicken), etc. etc.

I normally go to Cherry Garden Filipino Chinese Restaurant when I get a craving. I always have a hard time deciding between the tocino (sweet cured pork) and the longanisa (sausage akin to chorizo or linguica). The first time we went, I found out they had two types of longanisa, sweet or garlic. I had never had garlic longanisa before, so I ordered that and fell in love with it. My wife likes the bangsilog, which features bangus, the Filipino milkfish. She’s also had the pusitsilog (dried fried squid), and the jefroxsilog (dried fried sole). As you can she, she’s much more adventurous than I am!

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Momofuku Noodle Bar

arnold — Wed, 23 May 2007 06:30:39 +0000

I had been on a quest to find the perfect bowl of ramen in the San Francisco Bay Area for awhile, but I think I’ve found perfection at Momofuku. It was seriously the best bowl of noodles I’ve ever had.

This is not traditional ramen, but I don’t care. Instead of slices of chashu (roast pork), Momofuku’s ramen features an incredibly delicious helping of shredded Berkshire Pork. The broth is incredibly porky (exactly what I’ve been looking for) and contains peas and a poached egg (instead of hard boiled), which helps thicken the broth and give it some more flavor. There are no bean sprouts in this ramen either, but I don’t care for them anyway, so that wasn’t a big deal.

We started with an appetizer of Roasted Rice Cakes, which were served with a roasted onion/spicy chili sauce. This looked like a fusion version of the Korean duk bok kee, and it was a delicious way to start the meal.

I ordered the Momofuku Ramen, which also contained pork belly, a welcome surprise. I wanted to order an appetizer of fried pork belly, but that was vetoed by my wife (probably for the better considering how much we’ve been eating this trip). My wife ordered the special pork neck ramen, which featured braised neck meat and a thicker, flat Chinese noodle. My friend had the standard pork ramen, which was like mine but sans pork belly.

Momofuku is a bit overpriced for a bowl of ramen, but considering the quality of the ingredients and how good it is, I’m not complaining. And as I raised the bowl to my lips to finish off the last of the broth, the chorus for “The Search is Over” by Survivor starting playing in my head:

I was looking for ramen
Looking for the best
I went to New York
Unsure of what I’d find
Now I look into my bowl
The broth is gone forever
The search is over
Momo’s the best one in my mind…

INFORMATION
Momofuku Noodle Bar
163 1st Ave.
New York, NY 10003 map
212.475.7899
Web site

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Super Bowl XLI Party Food

arnold — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 03:19:57 +0000

For our Super Bowl XLI party, we decided to showcase foods from both Chicago and Indianapolis.

Originally, I thought of ordering some frozen pies from Lou Malnati’s or Geno’s East, but that wasn’t a very cost-effective option. Luckily, the SF Bay Area has some pretty good Chicago-style deep dish options. We ordered one pie from Zachary’s in San Ramon and one from Patxi’s in Palo Alto. (Read my Yelp reviews for Zachary’s and Patxi’s, too.)

But what about Indy? Does Indy have any unique local “delicacies” that they can offer the rest of the world? After much searching, I discovered the Indiana is known for their breaded pork tenderloin sandwiches, and there’s even a web site devoted to the subject. Since breaded pork tenderloin is basically the same as Japanese katsu, we knew exactly how to approach it.

We followed the procedure for mini tenderloin sandwiches, using panko for the breading and Colombo’s potato dinner rolls for the “buns.” The final results were awesome and nearly outshined the pizza.

Now if only the game was as good as the food…

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Grandma Watanabe’s Pineapple-Glazed Ham

arnold — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 10:40:25 +0000

Our friends made this ham for a Christmas party we had one year, and it was awesome. It’s a bit of work, but the results are amazing.

INGREDIENTS

1 8-12 lb whole ham or 5-7 lb canned ham (whole ham is better and weighs more because of the bone)
Whole cloves
1 cup brown sugar (tightly packed)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
20 oz canned pineapple slices in syrup
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon hot mustard (optional)

NOTES

You may want to double the glaze and reserve half for basting. Depends on how much area your ham occupies. Recommended for whole ham.

You’ll need a V-rack or sturdy pie-pan with holes poked/drilled through (like Marie Callendar’s pan) to support the ham off the bottom of the roasting pan.

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Place V-rack (or pie pan inverted) in roasting pan. This will keep the ham from sitting directly on the bottom of the roasting pan.
Place ham fat side UP on rack or inverted pie pan and put in the oven
Bake ham, cooking at rate of around 18-24 min per pound. It may be helpful to use an electronic timer.

While the ham is baking, prepare the glaze:

Quarter (or 6th or 8th) the pineapple slices. You want flat pieces and you want to keep the syrup.
Combine brown sugar, cornstarch, salt, pineapple with syrup, lemon juice and mustard in saucepan on Medium.
Heat until sugar and cornstarch are dissolved.
45 minutes *before* end of ham baking time, pause timer and remove ham.
Lightly score ham in a cross-hatch pattern.
Place whole cloves in cuts.
Glaze ham with sauce and drippings
Put ham back in oven and finish cooking
After baking, remove ham and let cool.
Remove cloves.

This next section is optional, but will impart even more flavor to the ham.

Carve the ham and lay slices into an oven-friendly serving dish.
Place pineapple pieces between slices for spacing.
Apply remaining glaze (this is why I double the glaze)
Bake an additional 15-30 minutes, basting regularly.

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Tita’s Hale ‘Aina Pork Adobo

arnold — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 08:35:03 +0000

I found this recipe in an article on SFGate.com while putzing around the Web. It’s from Tita’s Hale ‘Aina restaurant in San Francisco, but they closed a couple years ago. Don’t see why their recipe shouldn’t be shared with the world, so here it is.

INGREDIENTS
3 pounds boneless pork butt, cut into 1-inch cubes
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1 bay leaf, crushed
1 tablespoon crushed dried red chiles

INSTRUCTIONS

Combine all ingredients in a plastic or glass container. Cover and refrigerate for 3 hours.
Transfer the pork and its marinade to a Dutch oven and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer over low heat for 30 to 45 minutes.
Uncover and simmer for 15 minutes longer, until the liquid has evaporated and the pork is lightly browned. Serve with rice.

Serves 4

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Kalua Pig in a Crock Pot

arnold — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 21:42:22 +0000

Bring the luau home with this really easy recipe. (Recipe courtesy of alohajoe.com, picture courtesy of onokinegrindz blog.)

INGREDIENTS
Pork butt or shoulder (they are the same thing)
2 cups apple cider (non-alcoholic)
1/2 cap liquid smoke
1 tbsp. Hawaiian sea salt (kosher salt works, too)

DIRECTIONS
Rub salt on pork.
Put pork in crock pot.
Add apple cider and liquid smoke.
Turn crock pot on low and cook for 9-10 hours.
Take meat out of crock pot and shred with fork. Salt to taste.

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Baby Back Ribs in a Crock Pot

arnold — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 19:30:42 +0000

This is an easy, no-hassle way to make great baby back ribs at home.

INGREDIENTS
1 rack of baby back ribs
your favorite spice rub
your favorite BBQ sauce (for glazing the ribs)

DIRECTIONS

Sprinkle rack of ribs with your favorite spice rub.
Place meat on a rack with meat facing outward and fatty end of the rib at the top. You’ll probably have to “curl” the meat so it fits in the pot, or if you have an oval slow cooker, you can cut the slab in half and stand them up like a teepee with the fatter end of the ribs at the top.
You don’t really need any liquid for this recipe, but if you want you could add a few drops of liquid smoke to the pot.
Cook on low for 8-10 hours. It’s done when the rib meat shrinks from the bottom of the rib about 1/4 inch or you can pull on the rib bone and it loosens from the meat.
Before you take out the ribs, baste it with your favorite sauce and cook for 10 more minutes.
After 10 minutes, take out the ribs and eat them!

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