Pork Panang with Kabocha Squash

This is a take on the SheSimmers.com recipe here; as always her recipes are spectacular, and she has a couple of cookbooks out that are worth looking in to.  I do make a few changes, as well as telling you how to break down a kabocha without that pesky little loss of fingers.  It's delicious, filling, and the kabocha adds a nice sweetness which lets you skip adding sugar.

1 lb trimmed and sliced pork loin
1 small kabocha (you really want one about the size of a grapefruit, larger ones should be halved or mixed in to a double recipe)
4 oz can panang curry paste (or to taste if it's too spicy)
1 large shallot, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
Thai chiles to taste, minced (optional)
1 can coconut milk, unshaken
1 T oil
Fish sauce
 4 kaffir lime leaves, finely sliced (if you can find them)

Take a small thin knife, like a paring knife, and vent your frustration on that squash (it's shockingly cathartic).  You want to punch a bunch of slits in to the center of the squash to vent it so it won't blow up in the microwave.  Microwave the squash for 3-5 minutes (depending on size) so you can cut it apart without losing fingers.  Take a spoon and remove the seeds, then cut it in to bite-sized pieces.

Take the top creamy part off of the coconut milk, and combine it with the shallots, garlic, curry paste, Thai chiles (if using), and oil in a large skillet.  Saute until mixed and fragrant.  Add in the rest of the coconut milk, the pork, and the squash, cooking until both are done but the squash isn't falling apart.  If you find the sauce is reducing too much thin it out with stock or water.  Season with fish sauce to taste, and the kaffir lime leaves.  Remove from heat and serve with jasmine rice.

Cambodian Grilled Pork (Bai Sach Chrouk)

This street food dish of grilled pork over rice (often broken rice, which is to say cheap broken grains of rice) served with pickled vegetables (included below) is, oddly enough, a breakfast dish in Cambodia.  Personally I eat it as a main dish.  I intentionally make this a little salty to eat with rice.  Start the pickled vegetables at least a day ahead of time.

1 lb pork loin, well trimmed, then sliced against the grain in to 1/4" slices
2/3 C coconut milk
2 T + 1 t palm or brown sugar
4 T soy sauce
1 T black soy sauce, or kecap manis
1 T fish sauce
4 cloves garlic
black pepper to taste
Thai chiles to taste (either chopped fresh, or ground dried)

Combine all the ingredients and marinate for at least an hour.  Remove the pork from the marinade (reserving marinade), and grill or broil until cooked and well caramelized.  Bring the marinade to a boil and reduce slightly to make a sauce. Serve the pork over rice and pour over some of the cooked marinade.

Pickled Vegetables:
1/2 C rice vinegar
1/2 C white vinegar
2 T salt
8 T sugar
1 carrot, peeled, halved lengthwise, and sliced in to thin half rounds
1 small daikon, peeled, halved lengthwise, and sliced in to thin half rounds
1/2 cucumber, peeled, halved lengthwise, and sliced in to thin half rounds
4 cloves garlic,thinly sliced
6 sprigs cilantro
6 Thai chiles

Combine the vinegars, salt, and sugar and bring to a simmer just long enough to dissolve the sugar; cool slightly.  Mix together the other ingredients, then pour the vinegar mixture over the top, making sure all the vegetables are covered.  Refrigerate for at least a day before eating.

Cuban Roasted Pork

This is a slight variation on a typical Cuban roasted pork, using a dutch oven, Le Creuset, or other large covered baking dish along with lots of marinade and onions to give you a bunch of caramelized onions to mix in with the deeply browned and meltingly tender pork.

5-6 pounds pork shoulder in 2-3 large pieces, trimmed of any large pieces of fat
10-12 cloves garlic (or a few more if you want to add in some finishing garlic)
2-3 t oregano
1-2 t cumin
1/2 C orange juice
1/4 C lemon juice
1/4 C lime juice
1 C sherry (or more)
4 large yellow onions, quartered and thinly sliced.
Salt and pepper to taste (you'll likely need 1.5-2 T salt, this is a lot of meat)

Mash together the garlic, oregano, cumin, and salt (reserve some of the salt for final seasoning so you don't over salt the dish); rub all over the meat then put the meat in a large seal able plastic bag.  Add the rest of the ingredients and refrigerate for a day, turning occasionally.

Heat the oven to 350 F, and put the pork (reserving the marinade separately) in your roasting dish of choice.  Roast, un-covered, for an hour, turning occasionally to brown all the sides.   Add the marinade with onions to the dish and cover; cook until the pork is falling apart (maybe 3 hours or so), turning the pork and stirring occasionally; add sherry if anything starts to look too dry.  Remove the pork, let rest, and then shred.  If the onions haven't pretty much fallen apart by this time, continue to cook, covered, until they have (if using the finishing garlic add them, minced, in the last few minutes).  Mix the shredded pork with the the onions. 

Vietnamese Caramelized Pork

Crispy, salty, subtly sweet, delicious pork.  I like to mix it with rice and serve it in a lettuce wrap with fish sauce as an appetizer, or just over rice also with a side of fish sauce as a decadent main.  This recipe is an adaptation of the one found in Andrea Nguyen's excellent cookbook Into the Vietnamese Kitchen.

Ingredients:
1/4 C oil
1 small yellow onion, chopped
2 small cloves garlic, minced
1 lb ground pork
3 T fish sauce
1 T Vietnamese Caramel Sauce
1 t sugar
3 green onions, thinly sliced

Add the oil to a skillet and saute the onion and garlic on medium for a few minutes until soft.  Add in the pork, and break up the pieces as much as possible until the meat has cooked through.  Add everything else except the green onions and cook on medium high for 10-12 minutes or until the meat develops brown caramelized spots.  Add in the green onions, toss for a minute or so, and remove from the heat.

Korean Spicy Pork

A spicy (well, by Korean standards) stir fried dish of pork with vegetables, similar to dak galbi.

Ingredients:
1 1/4 lb pork loin, trimmed and thinly sliced
a medium onion either quartered and thinly sliced or cut in to thick slices (see note)
2 small zucchinis, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/4" slices
3 cabbage leaves, trimmed and chopped into roughly 1 inch squares
3 green onions, chopped
1 C chicken stock

Marinade:
6 T koch'ujang (Korean red pepper paste)
4 T koch'u karu (Korean red pepper powder)
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 T corn syrup
2 T sesame oil
2 t grated ginger
1 T mirin
2 T chicken stock
ground pepper to taste
2 T sugar
2 T soy sauce

Mix together the marinade ingredients, then add the pork; allow to marinate for at least 30 minutes.  Heat a little oil in a wok or large non-stick skillet and stir fry the onion until it starts to wilt (or see note about not adding it until after the pork goes in).  Add the pork and marinade mixture and stir continuously until the pork is close to done.  Add the rest of the ingredients and cook, stirring frequently, until the zucchini is just done.  Adjust the seasoning as necessary.

Note: I thinly slice the onion and cook it before adding the pork because I don't like big crunchy pieces of onion.  For a more traditional version cut the onion into bigger pieces and add to the pan shortly after the pork.

French-Style Garlic Sausage

There aren't any amounts to this, as I wasn't measuring when I made it, and you usually have to adjust it by cooking some and tasting it.  The dominant flavors should be garlic and thyme with an under tone of red wine.

Pork shoulder
Salt pork
Thyme
Garlic
Nutmeg
Salt
Pepper
Rich red wine like a burgundy 
A slice or two of slightly stale bread

Grind together the garlic, pork shoulder, salt pork, and bread; I used a coarser grind and only ground it once.  Mix in the spices and check the seasoning by frying up some.  Casing the sausage is optional.

Pad Prik King

1/2 lb pork loin, trimmed and sliced
4 T vegetable oil
1/2 lb Chinese long beans (or green beans, but those need to be cooked longer)
2-3 T fish sauce
1-2 T grated ginger
6-8 kaffir lime leaves, thinly sliced
handful of Thai basil, torn (optional)
4 oz can of prik king (khing) curry paste

Heat the oil in a wok and cook the curry paste thoroughly, until very fragrant and somewhat dried out.  Add the meat, followed a minute or two later by the long beans (you may want to start the beans first if using green beans).  When the meat is about done add the fish sauce, lime leaves, and basil, then taste.  Add sugar or fish sauce if necessary.

Twice Cooked Pork

The Sichuan style of twice cooked pork, adapted slightly for western tastes - this uses lean pork loin instead of the more typical skin on pork belly.  Using loin the double cooking isn't actually necessary; it can just be stir fried, but I include the whole double cooking method as a note if you want to try it with pork belly.  The amounts given here are for a single half pound pork chop, but you may well want to double that if cooking for two (make even more, the leftovers are great).  See Chinese Ingredients for pictures and substitutions of ingredients.

First cooking:
1/2 lb pork loin, trimmed and in fairly thin slices

Other ingredients:
2-3 green onions, finely sliced
2-3 cabbage leaves, de-stemmed and chopped in roughly 1 inch squares, or other veggies, zucchini is good
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
oil
several dried chiles, de-seeded

Sauce:
2 T Chili bean paste
1 T Soybean paste
1-2 t sugar
2 T soy sauce
1-2 t fermented black beans (optional)


Combine the sauce ingredients and set aside.

Heat oil in the wok with the dried chiles and blacken them over high heat.  Add the pork and the garlic and stir fry briefly to slightly brown the pork and the garlic, remove both to a plate.   Add the sauce ingredients to the wok and stir fry until fragrant.  Add the cabbage leaves and stir fry briefly to wilt.  Add the green onions, then add in the reserved pork and garlic.  Toss briefly to coat then serve with rice.

Note:  If you want to cook this with pork belly instead of loin, you'll use this as the first step:

Combine the pork with
2 pieces ginger, smashed with the flat of a knife
2 green onions, chopped into 1 inch pieces
2-3 t shaohsing rice wine
enough water to cover

Simmer the pork for half an hour or until it's starting to become tender.  Move the pork into the fridge to cool down.  Once it's cooled slice into relatively thin bite-sized pieces; discard the other simmering ingredients.

Curried Pork with Pickled Garlic

A rich Thai curry that gets an interesting kick from the pickled garlic.  I usually scale this one up to use a whole can of coconut cream.

Ingredients:
1/4 lb lean pork, sliced in to thin strips
vegetable oil for sauteing
Chopped Thai chiles to taste (optional)
1-2 T red curry paste (start with one, you can add more if needed)
~1/2 C coconut cream
2 T fish sauce
1 t sugar
2 t lemon juice
4 cloves pickled garlic, minced (more if they are very small cloves)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 T ginger, grated
heavy pinch turmeric

Saute garlic (not the pickled garlic), then add in red curry paste and chiles; saute for a minute.
Add in coconut cream and pork, cook until pork is done and coconut cream has reduced slightly.
Add in the rest, adjusting seasoning, and simmer for a minute or two to combine flavors.
Serve with rice.

Pork Confit

Pork cured in herbs then slowly poached in fat.  It may not be terribly good for you, but sometimes you have to indulge.  You can make this with either loin or shoulder, with loin being better for things like slicing to put on sandwiches, but if you want to make rillettes you're really going to need to make it with the shoulder.  This recipe is a slight modification of the one from Charcuterie by Ruhlman and Polcyn -- THE guide to curing meats, and as the weather gets colder and more suitable to hanging meat to dry, one you should definitely go buy.

Ingredients:
2.5 lbs of pork loin, or 4 lbs if using shoulder cut in to four slices for loin, or cubed for shoulder
2 T kosher salt
3 bay leaves
6 T flat leaf parsley
4 T fresh sage
1.5 T black pepper, ground or crushed
4 T shallots
5 cloves garlic
1/2 t pink salt (insta cure #1, a mix of salt and 6.25% sodium nitrite)
enough fat to fully submerge the meat, preferably rendered duck fat, but lard will also work (at some point I also want to try using fat rendered from beef marrow bones when making stock/glace)

Food processor together the herbs, shallots, and garlic, then add in the salt, pink salt, and pepper and processor briefly.  Rub the meat with this mixture and refrigerate for three to four days.

Remove the meat and rinse off all the seasoning, then dry.  Melt the fat in a pot or dutch oven, add the meat, and bring just to a simmer; the meat must be fully submerged.  Remove from the heat and place in an oven preheated to 180-200 F.  Cook until fork tender, approximately 4 hours for loin, and 4-6 for shoulder.

At this point you can remove the meat and separate out the meat and the juices from cooking, making sure to reserve both.  The meat can be re-submerged in the fat and kept in the fridge for weeks or months (the original purpose of confit was to preserve meat), while the juices can be used as a seasoning for the meat, either mixed into rillettes or sprinkled onto the meat while pan searing.  If you do this with shoulder the juices will also have a considerable amount of gelatin, which helps to produce a rich velvety sauce.  Keep in mind that the juices and the meat will be fairly salty from the curing, so taste to make sure you don't over salt.  The fat can be reused, but again, it will pick up salt.

Fish-Fragrant Pork

This dish doesn't actually have any fish in it, it's just that the salty, sweet, and sour flavors in it are common in traditional Sichuan fish dishes. This is a fast dish for when you want something interesting but don't want to spend much time in the kitchen. Just make sure you keep it moving as you're cooking on high heat, and you might pepper gas yourself if you don't have the vent exhaust on.  See Chinese Ingredients for pictures and substitutions of ingredients.


1/2-3/4 lb lean pork, trimmed and thinly sliced
1 can baby corn
handful black fungus, re-hydrated and sliced
2 t grated ginger
2 shallots, sliced
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 T pickled chiles, chopped
hot chiles to taste, chopped (optional)
oil to fry the meat
2 T chile bean paste
Stock to thin sauce if necessary

Marinade:
1 T soy sauce
1 T water
1 T cornstarch

Sauce:
2 T soy sauce
1.5 T Chinkiang black vinegar
1 T Shaoxing rice wine
2 t sugar
1 t salt, or to taste
2 t corn starch
2 t sesame oil
1/2 t black pepper, ground
3/4 t Sichuan pepper, toasted and ground

Marinate the meat for 15-20 minutes, then fry it in very hot oil for 30 seconds.  Remove the meat and set it aside, and drain off all but 3 T of the oil.
Combine the sauce ingredients.
Heat the oil on high until almost smoking, then add the hot chiles, garlic, ginger, and shallots, and stir fry for 20-30 seconds.
Add the bean paste and stir fry for another 20-30 seconds.
Add the rest of the veggies and stir fry for another minute.
Add the meat back in an continue cooking for another 30 seconds to a minute.
Add the sauce and cook just until it thickens; add some stock if it is too thick.
Adjust seasoning if necessary, and serve with rice.

Jagerschnitzel

Breaded pork cutlet with an absolutely delicious mushroom and bacon gravy. Alright, so this probably isn't something your arteries would appreciate you eating with any regularity, but it makes a hell of a meal with a side of simply sauteed asparagus and some spaetzel or egg noodles.   

1 1/2 pounds pork loin, trimmed and cut into quarter inch slices
1/4 - 1/3 cup all-purpose flour (based on enough to make a roux from the bacon drippings)
1 t freshly ground black pepper
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 t paprika
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/3 C cream
2 T dijon mustard
panko bread crumbs
1/2 pound bacon, diced
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1/2 lb sliced button mushrooms
6 T red wine (burgundy preferably)
oil for frying
1 cup beef stock
2 T unsalted butter
2 T chopped fresh Italian parsley
Salt to taste

Brown the bacon over medium to medium low heat
Dip pork in egg, then coat with panko; fry in 350 degree oil until golden brown and fully cooked.

When the bacon is browned remove from the skillet, leaving the fat. Saute the onion and garlic, then add in the mushrooms and saute. Push the mushrooms, onion, and garlic to one side of the skillet, toss in the butter, and tilt the skillet to separate the fat from the veggies. Make a roux using the flour (1/3 C is approximate, use enough to make a roux of proper consistency); cook the roux for a minute or so.

Add the cream, milk, wine, mustard, paprika, and pepper and allow to cook until thickening.  Add the bacon back to the pan along with the parsley. Adjust the gravy to the proper consistency by adding the beef stock a little at a time and allowing to simmer; you may not need all the stock. Adjust seasoning to taste and serve on top of the breaded pork.