Javaholic: New Year's

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Pork and Green Bean Lettuce Wraps

This Sunday is not only Valentine's Day; it's also the first day of the lunar new year. Although I'm Caucasian, born in Sacramento, with Irish blood and Scotch whiskey coursing through my veins, I celebrate Lunar New Year as much as I celebrate Thanksgiving. For the last eight years my wife and I have been hosting the traditional family dinner at our house. This came about in part because my wife's cousins left Indonesia after the riots there in 1998. The riots, in which the military reportedly played a role, targeted Chinese, with mobs attacking Chinese neighborhoods and businesses. My wife's cousins were in Jakarta during the rioting and spent several harrowing days and nights fleeing and hiding from mobs. They were finally granted asylum here in 2002. They will have their citizenship interview this month.

Although I had hoped to put together more posts before the dinner with recipes for some of the dishes that will be served, I just haven't found the time. I should have planned this several months ago, but so it goes. I'll try to get a post or two in before the dinner, with others to follow. Kim and Hong at Ravenous Couple and Bee at Rasa Malaysia whose sites you are doubtless aware of, have had the foresight to preview some of the dishes they will be serving for the New Year's Dinner. Check them out for some interesting ideas.

Pork and Green Bean Lettuce Wraps
Adapted from Every Grain of Rice; Blonder and Low
A printable version is available here.

1 head iceberg lettuce
1 lb boneless pork shoulder, minced
1 tsp cornstarch
pinch of sugar
2 tsp light soy sauce
1 TBS shaoxing wine
1/2 lb green beans, or long beans
1 TBS peanut oil
1 medium Asian pear, peeled and diced
2 TBS oyster sauce
1/3 to 1/2 cup hoisin sauce

Refresh the lettuce in ice water for a few minutes. Separate and dry the leaves. keep the leaves chilled until ready to serve.

Marinate the pork with the cornstarch, sugar, soy sauce, and rice wine from 30 minutes up to 2 hours.

Par boil the beans in boiling water for about 2 minutes. Drain and shock in an ice bath. Drain. Cut into 1/4 inch pieces.

Heat a wok over medium-high heat. Add the oil. When the oil is shimmering, add the pork and stir-fry, breaking up the pork with a spatula. Cook until the meat is no longer pink.

Add the green beans and stir fry for 2 minutes. Stir in the diced pear and the oyster sauce and cook 30 seconds more, coating meat, pear and beans thoroughly with the sauce. Remove the mixture to a serving plate.

To serve, each diner places a teaspoon or so of hoisin sauce on a lettuce leaf, adds the meat mixture, then wraps the lettuce around the meat and eats.

Nb. The original recipe calls for long beans and water chestnuts. If you can get fresh water chestnuts, they are wonderful--crisp and sweet. Canned water chestnuts have a decent crunch, but their flavor is totally different, tinny and starchy.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Bak Kua--Coin of the Realm

Anyone who has a taste for pork and has spent any time in Singapore has probably not only tasted bak kua, but has come to long for it. In searching for a recipe for this, I came across many accounts of people trying to bring the pork into the US only to have it confiscated by customs agents. This also happened to my wife and me one time, even though the clerk at the shop in the airport in Singapore assured us there would be no problem bringing it in. We were trying to bring some back for my sister-in-law, who could probably wolf down a pound of this in one sitting. We have bought it for her on occasion here in the US, but a four ounce package (which is two small strips) is several dollars. Worse than the expense, it just doesn't taste as good. I won't claim that my recipe is as good as what you get in Singapore, but it's better than the packages you find in your local Asian market.

Ideally, the sheets of the prepared meat mixture would be dried in the sun, like drying krupuk. This would be possible in Sacramento in the summer, but not at this time of the year. Instead, I did as others have done and did the initial drying/baking in a very low oven. Once the sheets have been sufficiently dried/cooked, they are cut into smaller pieces and grilled. The pre-cooked sheets can be cut and frozen, stored for a final grilling when convenient. Serve them with cocktails and prepare to be worshipped.

I include links to recipes I tried before coming up with mine. They are all very similar with slight tweaks. I haven't been able to find rose wine or licorice powder, so I substituted rose syrup and ground fennel. Dry frying star anise and grinding it to a powder might also work. It's a recipe that allows plenty of room to tweak to your own personal tastes.

One addition to my recipe that you won't find in the others is pink salt (sodium nitrate). I would suspect that the original recipe for bak kua included saltpeter. This preserves the pinkish color in cured meats and can be found in old recipes for char siu. Sodium nitrite has largely replaced saltpeter because it apparently does a better job of killing bacterial nasties. Its inclusion in the recipe preserves the rosy color of bak kua and that slightly hammy taste. Leave it out and the bak kua will still taste ok, but it definitely is not as attractive.

Bak Kua/Bak Kwa--Singapore Jerky

2 1/2 lbs ground pork (should have at least 15% fat--pork shoulder is good)
2 TBS fish sauce
2 TBS soy sauce
1 TBS hoisin sauce
200 gr brown sugar
3 TBS honey
2 tsp ground fennel seeds
3/4 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp (3 grams) pink salt (sodium nitrite)
1 1/2 TBS vegetable oil

Mix ground pork with remaining ingredients. Cover tightly with cling-wrap and allow to marinate overnight. Spread mixture thinly on two jelly roll pans approximately 16" x 11". Put plastic wrap on top of the mixture and press down to spread as thinly and evenly as possible.