Dim Sum - Mini Hoisin Ribs

Wow, is the time shooting past right now.  Christmas is coming soon and you know what that means: DIM SUM!  Yes, Santa will bring delicious little bits of Chinese goodness to all the good little culinarians out there!  Those who are bad will be forced to watch and eat Vienna sausage (if you like Vienna sausage, please, seek professional help).

Oh, look at those little ribs to the side there.  They were gone so fast.

This is from a cookbook in print.  So, I'm not going to list exact ingredients or measurements.  Still, there are no surprises here.  If you're familiar at all with Chinese cooking, the ingredients are all pretty obvious.

The cookbook in question is  Dim Sum: Delicious Finger Food For Parties by Fiona Smith and William Lingwood.  I like this book.  It has gorgeous pictures and the recipes are definitely delicious.

Ingredients

• Pork ribs, cut in 2" pieces
• Hoisin sauce
• Other Chinese ingredients
  

Procedure

The first step here is really at your butcher.  Buy the ribs and have them cut them into 2-inch lengths.  Be sure to have the butcher remove the membrane on the bottom of the ribs before cutting.

I mixed all the ingredients together in a non-reactive bowl and let is all marinate overnight.

When I was ready, I covered the dish with foil.  Then, put it all into the oven at 350F (175C) for 90 minutes.

Done.  Yes, it's just that simple!

Test Results

These were devoured.  Didn't get much feedback.  But, I presume they were appreciated.

Potential Improvements

Cook longer to more tenderness.  I think next time I'm going to cook for a full two hours.

Potential Variations

Can't really think of any here.  The name makes them fairly specialized ... Hoisin mini ribs.

Conclusions

These are tasty and easy.  Just toss them into a dish overnight, cook them for a couple of hours, done!

I'll make them again.  Most definitely!

Canadian Bacon - Second Attempt

Around here, there are many ingredients that are simply unavailable.  Actually, that's a bit of an exaggeration.  Almost everything is available if you are willing to pay the hefty import price.

I'm not willing to pay those prices.  Not when I can make the items myself.  Canadian bacon is so simple ... why should I pay a price that should be reserved only for Kobe beef wrapped in golf leaf?

Of course, it's the simplicity that makes it so difficult.  For me, at least, complex foods are easier.  With simple foods, if you get one thing wrong, everything seems wrong.  Complex foods manage to hide minor errors better.

Now, this particular batch didn't go so well.  The first batch was rather salty, so I cut way back on the salt.  I blame my mother for this failure.  She was the one who said that my previous batch was salty (well, she and others ... possibly including myself).

She claims that she is not at fault here.  When we were discussing this, she mumbled something about me being the one who chose to use only a quarter cup of curing salt.  And, she rambled on about how she might have halved the cure and not dropped it so low.  Blah ... blah ... blah.

Some people might think that she made a couple reasonable points.  To that, I say "hogwash!"  She raised me, it's her fault I cut the salt so much.

Certainly not my fault as I had limited input in cooking this batch.  All I did was buy the pork, prepare the pork, make the brine, inject the pork, brine the pork, smoke the pork, rest the pork, and slice the pork.  She raised me and ate some of the pork.

Any sane person can see that she is clearly the one at fault here.

Ingredients

• One whole pork loin
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup Instacure #1
• 5 quarts water
  

Procedure

Here are the ingredients for my simple brine: brown sugar and Instacure #1. Next time, I'll use a lot more of the pink stuff.

Here's my pork loin.  I was lucky to find a reliable butcher here who would do this for me.  Usually this is cut up quite differently for Filipino foods.  I have to pay a slight premium.  Still, it's worth it.

Here is my loin prepped.  I removed all the membranes, silverskin, most of the fat, etc.  And, I sliced it in two because I planned to try two different techniques.

I mixed my brine ingredients with five quarts of water.  Mixed thoroughly until everything was dissolved.

Then, I took my nifty meat injector (it looks like something right out of a really bad horror flick ... probably something by Troma) and give each piece a full shot of the brine.  I stuck the multi-holed needle right into the middle of my loin.

There are my pork beauties swimming in their brine.  They're covered for their protection and in a stainless steel pot.  Into my big chest fridge for five days.

Here they are after their five day stint in the fridge.  I soaked one of them in water for two hours in the fridge after this.  The other one stay wrapped in plastic in the fridge.

Here they are just started their time in my smoker.  225F (107C) for about five hours.  I took them out when their internal temperatures his 155F (68C).

There they are ... done.  Just not Canadian bacon.  Definitely yummy sandwich meat, though.

Test Results
Failure.

Looking at the meat, the brine didn't even penetrate.  Disappointing.  I think I used too little salt.  I didn't even bother having the Primary Test Team taste this formally.  We just used it in soups and on sandwiches.

It wasn't that the pork tasted bad.  It was good.  It just wasn't Canadian bacon.

Also, I didn't notice a difference in saltiness between the two.  Probably because the salt didn't even get into them in the first place.

Potential Improvements

Big room for improvement here.  I'm going to increase the cure next time.  Probably do three versions, one with 1/2 cup of cure, one with 3/4 cup, and one with a full cup of cure.

Potential Variations

Lots of variations.  But, I'm going for a simple, slightly sweet Canadian bacon.  I don't want too salty.  So, once I get this down, I'll probably stick to only a single recipe.

Conclusions

Even with this failure, I think I'm closer.  I could taste the sweetness of the brown sugar in the meat.  Very faint, as the brine clearly didn't penetrate.  But, the sweetness was still there.

I'll figure it out.  When I do ... that's one less item that is unavailable here.

Char Siu Pastries - First Draft

Besides Nor Mai Gai and Baked Hum Bow, Char Siu pastries are one of my favorite Dim Sum dishes.  Since I already know how to make decent Nor Mai Gai, I thought I'd try out making Char Siu (Chinese BBQ pork) pastries.

Since I decided to go on a Dim Sum kick, I purchased a half-dozen cookbooks on the topic.  One of those cookbooks was Dim Sum: The Art of Chinese Tea Lunch by Ellen Leong Blonder.

So many great look dishes in this cookbook.  Fortunately, the recipe for Char Siu pastries is one of them.  Woohoo!

Since this is a recipe from a cookbook that's still in print, I'm going to skip my usual ingredient list.  Instead, I'll recommend buying the book.  There are no pictures but it has some very nice illustrations showing technique.

I've purchased many cookbooks that I've regretted.  This is one I'm very glad to have.

Procedure

This is a long process, so I recommend getting something nice to drink and get comfortable.

First, I started out making the pastry dough.  Ice water and the usual ingredients for a flaky dough.

Using my pastry cutter, I cut in the lard until the dough resembled round pebbles.

I wrapped the dough in plastic wrap and formed it to the size of about half a piece of paper (8.5" x 11" or A4, take your pick).

The recipe calls for a second dough.  Slightly different ingredients (larger amount of shortening compared to the flour content).  Again, I cut in the lard until I got a crumbly, pebble-like consistency.

The second dough is wrapped in plastic and formed into a 3" x 4" piece.  Both doughs get put into the fridge for a few hours to ensure that the shortening doesn't melt.

After their time in the cooler, both doughs are pulled out.  Here they are ready-to-go.  Rolling pin, dough, flour to roll out, and a half-sized pastry piece of parchment folded in half length-wise to use as a ruler.

I placed the small piece of dough on top of the larger one.  Really, what's going on here is similar to making puff pastry.  The small dough has more fat in it and will be used to make layers.

Fold the larger dough's sides in and seal around the smaller dough.

Roll the whole thing out to approximately 6" x 18".  As you can see, my rolling pin skills need improvement.

Once rolled out, fold into thirds.

Then, wrapped in plastic again and back into the fridge.  Again, trying to make sure that the fat doesn't melt which makes the dough tough.

A second and third time I pulled the dough out of the fridge and rolled it out to 6" x 18" in size.  After each time, I folded it in thirds and put it back into the fridge.

Now that the dough is in the fridge and resting, I turned to the filling. I pulled out a piece of my char siu pork.

Gave the delicious pork a nice dicing.

Here are the ingredients for the sauce.  Nothing secret here.  Just the normal Chinese sauce ingredients (again, not going to be precise since this is from a book in print).

A little time over the stove and the filling is born!

I put the filling into a Pyrex measuring container and put it all into the fridge.  I wanted nice and cold filling.  Easier to work with and it won't melt the fat in the dough.

Now that I had the chilled filling, I pulled the dough back out.  I attempted to roll it out to about 12" x 12".  Unfortunately, the dough was showing signs of stress.  I just didn't want to behave.  I think I overworked it and I also think I blew the ingredients a little.

I cut the rolled out dough into little 3" x 4" pieces.  I had a bit of a problem as the dough was being uncooperative.  It just didn't want to heal, so my pieces weren't exactly works of art.

Down the center of the piece of dough, I put about a tablespoon of filling.

Folded the dough over like a piece of paper ... and sealed it up.

I turned the little packet over so that the seam-side was down.

I painted an egg wash onto each pastry and sprinkled them with sesame seeds.

Here are my little pastries all laid out and ready to go into the oven.

Now, the pastries came out of the oven not flaky ... a little bit tough.  Still quite tasty.

Test Results

Primary Test Group:  Delicious!

Test Group C:  Oi!  Bring more ... and don't talk while I'm eating!

Potential Improvements

Definitely need a better crust.  I'm pretty sure that I screwed up it by overworking the dough.  I also think I added slightly too much water to the large dough.  And, I think I messed up by using lard that was at room temperature rather than cold lard.

Potential Variations

All kinds of great fillings can go into a pastry-like dough.  Still, my favorite is char siu.

Conclusions

I'm pretty sure that I'm on the right track here.  I just need more practice working with this kind of dough. 

I'll try this one again soon!

Canadian Bacon - First Attempt

As you, my millions of loyal fans, know ... I love pizza.  I love it too much for my own good health.  But, this is a bit about cooking .. not a health quest.

My very favorite pizza is Canadian bacon and Italian sausage.  And this isn't just favorite as in "I like it a little more than others" ... this is favorite as in "I believe this is the King of All Pizzas, ruler of the Land of Pizza, Pizza As It Should Be."

I've managed to make some Italian sausage.  It's pretty good.  Perhaps over time, I'll make it better.  But, it's certainly good enough to go onto my Dream Pizza.  The pizza for which I quest.  Of course, if I still lived back in the US, it would be more of a pizza drive not a quest.  Here, I must make it myself.  That seems like a lot more fun.

I poked around on the web and found this recipe for making Canadian bacon.  It sounded simple enough for me to start with.  I figured that I would start with the simple one of go from there to improve the quality with each iteration.

Here is my attempt ...

Ingredients

• 2.5 kilograms pork loin
• 1 gallon water
• 1 cup salt
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup Prague #1 (Cure)
• 1 tsp pickling spice
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
  

Procedure

First, I mixed the brine.  I put all the ingredients together (except the pork loin, of course) into a large steel stock pot. 

Ah, there it is.  The lovely pork loin.  Two-and-a-half kilograms of tasty baboy (pork).

I cut it into three equal pieces because I planned to make three different versions.  One I'd brine for a day, one I'd brine for two days, one for three days. 

I enlisted the aid of my sous chef to inject some of the brine into each piece.  I have a two fluid ounce stainless steel injector.  I injected one of the pieces with a full shot from the injector ... putting the needle portion directly in the middle of the piece of meat.  My sous chef did the other two.

I put the now brine-filled loin pieces into the brine in one of my stainless steel pots.  A little plastic wrap on top and into the fridge it went.  

The instructions said to cook the meat in hot water (170F / 77C) until the internal temperature came up to (155F / 68C).  Notice my little probe thermometer swimming in the water and its head barely clinging to the side of the stove.

Here's one of the pieces as it cooks into the water. Notice the color.  This just didn't look like Canadian bacon to me.  Had the wrong look.  To be fair to the recipe source, I'd only brined this one for two days where they call for four or five. 

Here's one of the water-cooked pieces on the chopping block.  The taste and texture were OK.  The color was off for me.

While I was cooking the two-day brine, I'd fired up my smoker to make some ribs (see previous post).  So, I thought, why not smoke one instead of cooking it in hot water.  The results of this test are the picture at the top of this post.

Test Results

Primary Test Group:  Very good.  A bit salty.  One day brine's flavor was weak but the salt was about right.  Two-day brine was too salty and flavor was not-so-good.

Test Group M:  Good.

Potential Improvements

Definitely needs more flavor and less salt.  That's accomplished through the brine.  I need to cut way back on the cure and salt that I put into the recipe.

I'm also not a big fan of the pickling spices.  Those will go in my next attempt.  Replaced by brown sugar.

Conclusions

This was a good first attempt.  While I don't think that I'm close to making good Canadian Bacon, I'm definitely on the right track.  Brine followed by smoke seems to definitely be the way to go.

There are options to consider ... do I soak the loin after brining?  Do I put it directly into the smoker without soaking?  Soak after smoking?

I hate leaving options untried ... I'll try them all ...

Char Siu Pork ... Final

I love Dim Sum.  Honestly, I figure everyone loves Dim Sum.  If they don't, they just haven't had good Dim Sum yet.  It's just a matter of time before they see the light.  After all, saying "I don't like Dim Sum" is like saying "breathing bores me and I want to stop" or "I tire of these pesky fingers, I think I'm going to cram them into a running wood chipper." 

Now, there are no restaurants around here that sell Dim Sum.  I found a couple places in Cebu that claimed to sell Dim Sum.  And yet, it was just rice toppings.  Not the glorious little pieces of this, that, and the other thing that the waitresses serve from push carts or that you order from a menu packed with so many choices that the text sets new records in small print size.

Like with pizza, if I want Dim Sum, I'm going to have to make it myself.  And, like with pizza, I'll start with the basic foundations and work my way up from there.

Many Dim Sum recipes call for char siu pork ... commonly called Chinese BBQ pork or Cantonese BBQ pork.  It's unbelievably delicious and it's required for many dishes.

After a few iterations and tests, I have what is my final recipe for now.

Ingredients

• 3 kilograms pork tenderloin
• 1 cup soy sauce
• 1 cup + 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
• 1/2 cup oyster sauce
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2/3 cup rice wine
• 1 tablespoon Chinese five spice
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 teaspoons red food coloring
  

Procedure

Start with some pork tenderloin.  I had three kilograms of it.  Right now, it's going for P205 per kilo here ... that's about US$1.86 per pound at current exchange rates.  Love that!

I cut off the silverskin.  This is really important.  Silverskin doesn't let taste get through, you can't really chew it.  Silverskin is nasty stuff.  It has to go.  I don't even save it for making sausage like I do when I trim the fat off of other cuts.

OK, I'll admit, I'm a little lazy when it comes to cutting off the silverskin.  A little meat ends up going with the silverskin.  Maybe some day I'll develop the knife skills to waste little or no meat.  I'll get better in time.

Here are all the ingredients.  No surprises here.  Oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, pepper, five spice powder, honey, rice wine, and red food coloring.

I mixed all the ingredients together. Love my whisks ...

Into the sauce with my lovely pieces of tenderloin.  There they stayed overnight in my fridge.

Twelve hours later, I prepped my cooking platform: a half-sized baking sheet with a metal rack.  I put down a piece of parchment to protect the cooking sheet.  When the meat cooks, the sauce and the meat drips down.  The sauce burns badly on the sheet.  With the parchment, cleanup is far, far easier.

At this point, I turned my oven onto 400F (205C).

Here are my pork tenderloins ready-to-go.  They look edible already! 

I saved the sauce and got out my tools for basting.

Into the oven with my meat.  I cooked the meat for 45 minutes.  Every ten minutes, I pulled out the meat, thoroughly basted it, turned it over, and put the meat back into the oven.

Once out of the oven, I let the char siu pork rest for about 15 minutes.  Then, I put it into the fridge for a few hours to cool.  Finally, the meat met my power meat slicer and was turned into the delicious little medalions of red-ringed  pork that I'd seen in Chinese restaurants all my life.

Test Results

Primary Test Group:  Really tasty, kuya!


Test Group U:  Good.


Test Group M:  Very good.


Potential Improvements

I think I'm happy for now.  If I find another recipe that might need testing, I'll do a comparison.  But, for now, this is good.  Tastes right.  Exactly what I need.

Potential Variations

I might try this with Boston butt.  Aside from that, I don't want to vary this at all.

Conclusions

My hard work has paid off.  I can now make a reasonable quality Chinese BBQ pork.  Is it great?  Almost.   But, it's good enough for now.  I want to get to more Dim Sum.

Can't wait!