A Jersey Girl in Portland

Rice wine redux

 

Rice, rice wine.... stay close to me.....don't let me be alone...it's tearin' me apart...

Oh, no it's not tearin' me apart but as I started this post, Bob Marley's "Red, Red Wine" kept running through my head.

So, back to rice wine. I've been playing with rice wine for a couple of months.

 It's easy to make, sweet and delicious (but not cloyingly sweet).  Unfortunately, two cups of rice yielded about a half cup of wine. So I 've been using -- and sharing -- it sparingly.

Why, jus' this mornin' Mabel... I used it in a dish of sauteed Chinese broccoli with garlic. A little shot of sweet rice wine took the edge of the bitter greens.

But a half cup of rice wine is just not enough.

I need more so I made another batch. A double batch.

And this is how:

Rice Wine Recipe

4 cups Jasmine rice

8 cups water

2 dried yeast balls

Rinse rice in warm water. Bring eight cups of water to a simmer in a heavy-bottomed stock pot. Add rice, bring the mix back to a boil. Reduce heat to a low simmer and cook for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, remove from heat and allow to sit, undisturbed, for 10 - 15 minutes.  

While the rice cooks, grind two yeast balls* in a mortar and pestle.  Shopping for specialty ingredients is easy for me -- I live about ten minutes from Fubonn, a gigantic Asian mall anchored by a killer grocery store.

When the rice is done and rested, tip it out onto a butcher block and cool it by moving it around with a bench scraper, chopping it and moving it to keep it from clumping.

The goal is to cool the rice evenly.

Once cooled but still warm to the touch, use the bench scraper to mix the pulverized yeast with the rice.

Four cups of cooked rice will almost fill a gallon-sized jug.

Close the jar, seal it and put it in a warm place.

At my old apartment, I had a perpetual warm spot over the radiator. But in my new house, I have no constantly warm heat source. 

So, I put it on the heat vent in the living room.

Classy, huh?

I may have to use a heating pad to keep the rice warm.

I think you should make this at home. I can't think of an easier hooch to make without a still.

Cheers!

 

* The yeast balls are from the Asian market. I think I found them in the noodle aisle.

 

Ratios: brine, Brine: belly

I picked up a couple pounds of pork belly over the weekend and decided to brine it in Ruhlman's brine (I also purchased his 'ratios' book -- more on that when I've had a chance to read it).

I brined it overnight in a solution of two tablespoons salt to two-and-a-half cups water.*  I braised it in a cool-ish (300 degree) oven with a weird braising liquid of blueberries, chicken stock, white wine and ginger. Yes blueberries. Plus some brine spices; dried chilies, star anise, coriander, cinnamon, bay leaves and a few peppercorns. 

Yea, I went a little crazy.

Then I made pork belly buns using this recipe to make bun pancakes, not neatly cinched buns. I have yet to master the pinched buns so I take the gringo approach and make folded-over buns and tuck the meat and kmichi inside.

Sure wish I'd taken a photo before the buns disappeared. They sure were pritty. But, let me digress.

After the bellies came out of the braise (they were in the oven for two hours) I cut them into one-inch lardons (squares, sliced perpendicular the the strip of belly) and seared them in a saute pan until they had color on all sides.

Oh my, did the house smell good!

I steamed the bun pancakes, added Bittman's kimchi and I had a bloody wonderful appetizer.

Here's Bittman's kimchi recipe. I've blogged his kimchi before so it would make sense to just link to the old post, but every time I re-read that particular entry it makes me sad.

So here's the recipe, cut-and-pasted. Foolproof, delicious.

Mark Bittman's Kimchi

Layer the leaves of one small green cabbage and a peeled, cubed (1/2 inch) daikon radish in a large bowl with <1/2 cup kosher salt. Brine until the cabbage is wilted, 1 to 2 hours. You may need to massage the leaves and/or weight them to allow the salt to work. Rinse thoroughly!!

Roughly chop cabbage and toss with two bunches scallions (cut on the bias), 1/4 cup fish sauce, 1/4 cup minced garlic, 3 Tbsp sugar, 2 Tbsp minced ginger, and 2 Tbsp gochugaro (Korean chili powder). Use less if you need to sub chili flakes for the gochugaro.**

Combine ingredients and allow to marry for 10 minutes. Or a month.

* Since I only just realized that my housemate Lisa has a lovely gram scale, I used Ruhlman's volume-based rough brine mix. Two tablespoons salt to two-and-a-half cups water. For an accurate five percent brine use one ounce of salt to 20 ounces of water.

Scales are much more accurate in culinary applications.

** Go to an Asian market for these spices. The depth of flavor that the gochugro adds is remarkable. No, the individual spices aren't easy to find -- I had to ask for help after wandering around for 45 minutes -- but it's worth it.

Because eating well is the best revenge....

Love big.

Nancy

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Kimchi

Bacon Explosion

Last weekend, I hung with the Tribe -- mainly Jay Lake and housemate Lisa plus a band of fun friends. We had an archiving party.

(What do you do at an archiving party?) Mostly we put Jay's letters, notes, drafts, and proofs in boxes, sealed the boxes, and weighed/measured boxes. The boxes will go to a University in the midwest, one that is keen to gain the personal letters and papers of up-and-coming science fiction writers. Oh, and did I mention, said friend Jay has been nominated for a Nebula Award?

We also played Cards Against Humanity. What a riot! It's an adult version of Apples to Apples.

What does eat at an archiving party? Something dusty and old? Mais non!

I made a Bacon Explosion. It's a long loaf of ground port surrounded by bacon. Google it, the B.E. is so passé that the New York TImes did a feature on it -- in 2009.

There is a reason why food items linger on the collective consciousness. The bacon explosion has legs, stay power, because it's really delicious. Bacon, sausage, BBQ sauce and more bacon -- cooked low-and-slow.

Bacon Explosion

2 pounds bacon

2 pounds loose pork sausage (either hot, mild or both)

2 Tbsp BBQ sauce

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees or fire up the smoker.

Begin by weaving bacon into a mat. Lay two slices like an 'L'. Then weave bacon together to make a solid bacon mat with no gaps.

Spoon some BBQ sauce over the bacon mat.

Spread the pork sausage over the mat, leaving a 2 inch gap at the top.

Cook the extra bacon and sprinkle it in the middle of the matt of sausage. Add more BBQ sauce if desired.

Roll the bacon mat as tightly as possible. Transfer to a tray and either smoke until cooked through (internal temp of 160) or bake in a 300 degree oven for two hours. It'll smoke for a solid four hours.

 What better than a full meal of pork, cheese, bread and salad?* I dunno but it sure beats eating dust.

It was delicious but we've been thinking of ways to modify it by stuffing it with chopped onion, cilantro and tomatoes -- maybe even salsa.

If food = love, a Bacon Explosion = lovelovelove

Love big, OK?

xoxo

Nancy

 

 

* Jay's idea of a salad has at least three meats and two cheeses in it. The one he made for the party had chicken finger croutons, copa (like prosciutto), little bacon sausages, yellow and white cheese, olives, pears, Peperoncini peppers, the kitchen sink, the sponges under the sink, and OH! Only kidding.... the salad was a multi-course meal by itself.

Potato dumplings -- can it be this easy?

I woke up ridiculously early yesterday morning and decided to spend some time creating a potato dumpling recipe. I had the plump, starchy dumplings in Munich and vowed to make them here.

My first attempt was highly successful. They were appropriately doughy and fluffy. I used self-rising flour, egg, and grated, raw red potatoes.

The were delightful. But, I forgot one element. In Munich, the mold the dumplings around a cube of dark rye bread. The next batch will have the rye center. Or not.

Potato dumplings -- base recipe

Yield: eight tennis-ball-sized dumplings.

2 cups potatoes (see below)

1/2 cup AP flour (plus flour to roll the molded dumplings in)

3/4 tspn baking powder

1/4 tspn salt (the above ingredients constitute self-rising flour)

1 egg

1 Tbsp water

Optional: 8-10 half-inch cubes of dark rye or dark wheat bread

Blend flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. Beat egg and water in a large bowl. Add potatoes mix with a spatula. Add flour slowly until a sticky dough forms.

Using a large soup spoon, scoop out batter, form around the cube of bread (using floured hands) or form in a ball, and roll in flour. Set aside on a clean cutting board. 

If you chose to leave the bread out, do it. The bread bulks up the dumpling but doesn't necessarily make it taste better.

I used the potato water to poach the finished dumplings. I don't think it made a big difference but you do want to have enough salted water boiling  to cover the dumplings by the time they are all formed.

Regarding potatoes. For the first batch, I shredded, rinsed in hot water and squeezed dry (in a tea towel) two cups of red potatoes. For more information on this potato prep method, look at my blog post, Hash Brown Potatoes. The process of shredding, rinsing and drying the potatoes is detailed there.

For the second batch, I boiled and riced two cups of Idaho's finest baking potatoes (tap the measuring cup on the counter to pack the riced potatoes), following the same procedure as with raw, shredded potatoes.

Raw potato dumplings poached for 20 minutes, cooked potato dumplings were ready in 10 minutes.

Because I'm a masochist and know that at least one person is counting on a good recipe for potato dumplings, I made a third batch with thin skinned white potatoes.

BLECH! The white pots tasted raw even after poaching for 30 minutes.

Conclusions: I like the flavor of the grated raw red pots, but they looked a little shaggy. The riced, cooked potato dumpling looked more like what I ate in Germany.  They were lovely and delicious.

I'd easily cook these dumplings in chicken soup for chicken and dumplings or for any meal that required fat, starchy dumplings.

Enjoy!

 

Peace, love and lard--rendered.

My friend Kim gave me some pork fat from a friend of hers who owns  Singing Pig Farms, a happy pig farm. It's rendering into lard in one of my housemate LIsa's crock pots.

It's a beautiful day. This is an excerpt from an e-mail I sent to my mom.  It sums up my mood pretty well.

"I went to the farmers market today after water aerobics and got some great stuff to cook. Collards, a ham hock and cippolini onions. Plus lamb riblets, arugula rabe, curly endive, duck eggs.....

I haven't felt this 'at peace' in ages. I have a good kitchen and good food to cook. I have the day -- the weekend -- to myself. No dates, no sweeties (the Tribe is in Seattle for the weekend).

I have good food, loud music and a half-bottle of tawny port. I have found my bliss and it is within me."

But, I didn't come here to navel gaze. I came to cook. Specifically, to render pork fat into lard.

How To Render Lard

I'm using a crock pot and 2.5 # of pork fat.

Chop the fat and heat 1-1/2 cup of water in a kettle.

(In hindsight, I would have cut the pieces much smaller. Pea size.)

Add fat and water to the crock pot. Set on low and wait.

Oh, I mean w-a-i-t.

Lordy,

it's

taking

forever.

After 12 hours, the lard was still largely un rendered. So I went to bed, setting an alarm to go off every hour so I could check it. 

At 4 am, with no change, I set the alarm to go off every two hours.

And turned the heat up to 'high.'

According to the Interwebs, low on a Rival crock pot is about 200 degrees. High is 300. I should have started it on high, but I didn't. Oh well.

----The Next Day---

After 21 hours the lard looks slightly darker and the bits are smaller but it's far from finished.

Here's the rub...It's Sunday morning, (Chinese New Year) and I'm off to an Ecstatic Dance class with a friend. I couldn't leave the cooker on unattended.

So, I strained out the not-crunchy-at-all cracklings and put the lard in the cooler. I put the rare cracklings back in the crock pot. I added a cup of water as well.

Did not turn on the slow cooker.

---Later, same day ---

FYI,  2.5# of pork fat yields 2.5 cups of lard.

The finished lard rests in the fridge. Yellow in color. It should turn creamy white when it's chilled.

The bits-of-stuff-soon-to-be-cracklings are in the slow cooker. On high.

Happy Year of the Snake!

Love Big,

xoxo

Nancy

PS: I really want to post this so I'm going to follow up with the finished results of this experiment in another post or in comments on this post.