Braised smoked Pig Tails in Soy Sauce

中文菜谱：香浓软糯的烟熏猪尾

Tails are another one of my favorite parts from a hog.  They don’t look like much.  But the texture and taste are both awesome.  They are similar to ox tails, but smaller, sometimes leaner, and usually sold with skin on. 

They can be cooked in soup, braised, or deep fried.  Different cooking method would bring out different flavors.  After trying most cooking ways I can think of, smoking-and-then-braising becomes my new favorite way to cook them.

nlike what I used to buy from market back in China, the tails sold in America grocery market are much shorter, thicker and fattier.  Hours of smoking process can help to get rid of excessive pork fat.

Ingredients：

2 packages of pig tails (weighs around 3 to 4 pounds)
1 large piece of ginger root, smashed
1 to 2 teaspoons oyster sauce
2 to 3 tablespoons rice cooking wine
1/4 to 1/3 cup of soy sauce
1/2  to 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
2 tablespoons rock cane sugar
1 to 2 teaspoons Sichuan peppercorns
3 to 4 star anises
3 to 4 pieces of dried ginger
2 to 3 cloves
 a handful dried chili peppers
salt to taste
water for cleaning and cooking

Directions：

Preheat smoker to 250F/121C

Cleaning pig tails under running water.  Pat dry with kitchen paper towel.  Smoke them in smoker for 3 to 4 hours. 

The exterior becomes dry, crunchy and crispy.  Most excessive fat has dripped away in smoking process.

I smoke some pork belly along with tails.  Look how pretty they are

Add smoked tails to a cast iron pot, along with water, spices and seasonings.  Cook over high heat until water boils.  Reduce heat to simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. 

Turn the heat back to high, add salt to taste, and cook until most liquid evaporates.

Serve immediately

Tails are amazing part from hogs.  They are mostly bones and skins, not much meat attaching to them.  After long hours’ simmering and braising in soy sauce and spices, the lean meat part is soft and moist; and the skin part is soft and slightly chewy and al dente. 

Bon Appetite!

2018 Chinese New Year Eve & Tofu Ball with Pork and Mushroom Fillings

中文版菜谱：

2018年夜饭 & 猪肉糯米酿油豆腐

02/16/2018 is Chinese New Year Day.  Family members get together on New Year’s Eve and have a big family feast together.  It is very much like Thanksgiving Day for American people.  It is all about celebrating, appreciation, families and love. 

Fish in spicy beer sauce

Steamed pork belly and taro

Steamed Chicken feet with oyster sauce

Tofu balls with pork and mushrooms fillings

Smoked pig tails

Pickled daikon

Stir-fried pea tips with garlic

Sweet rice cake with nuts and red bean paste filling

Can you believe it is tofu?  O(∩_∩)O~          

Yes, it is definitely tofu.  Chinese people invented tofu more than a thousand years ago.  We have been cooking and eating tofu in numerous different ways ever since.  Sometimes you know what you eat is tofu, but sometimes you don’t even know if you are eating tofu. 

Ingredients：

2 packages of fried tofu balls ( a total of 16)
100g ground pork
6 to 8 pieces dried wood ear mushroom
a handful of  dried shitake or regular mushroom
1 cup sweet rice
 2 teaspoons oyster sauce
1 to 2 tablespoon soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 tablespoon rice cooking wine
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
salt to taste
water for soaking and cooking

Directions：

Soak sweet rice for at least 4 hours.  Drain well.

Soak mushrooms with water for at least 2 hours.  Rinse well under running water.  Add to processor, and finely chop them.

Add ground pork, chopped mushrooms, and sweet rice, along with all the seasonings to a large bowl.  Mix well with a wooden spoon or a pair of chopsticks.

With a sharp knife or kitchen scissors, cut a small opening on each tofu balls, and then scoop out inner tofu as much as possible.

Fill the tofu balls with pork sweet rice mixture.

Add all tofu balls to a medium pot, add water.  Season the water with salt.  Cook over high heat until water boils.  Cover with lid; reduce the heat to simmer for about 25 to 30 minutes. 

Turn the heat back to high.  Cook until all the liquid evaporates. 

Serve hot

It tastes like across meat balls and sweet rice cake balls.  Dried mushrooms and pork add ton of flavors to it.  I love it not just because it tastes good, also because I grew up eating it.  (￣▽￣)”

Braised Pork Feet and Chicken Hocks in Soy Sauce

中文菜谱：

红烧猪蹄鸡脚杆

Braised pork/ chicken/ beef in soy sauce are very traditional way to slow cook food in China.  Although the specific details vary from the south to the north; families to families, the essential ingredients remain the same.  Meat, soy sauce, rice cooking wine and ginger are a must for this dish. 

I learnt how to cook it by watching my grandma in the kitchen, starting with passing along soy sauce, washing ginger and building wood fire.  After a while, I could help with seasoning the meat and occasional stirring during simmer process.  I learnt from all these tiny things and daily chores that cooking can be so amazing and magical. 

The common ingredients to be braised are pork belly or other parts of pork, chicken, fish, shrimps and beef.  Technically most meat can be cooked this way.  I just personally prefer pork and chicken.

The chicken bones I use here are not really “bones”.  It is chicken hocks, the ankle part connecting chicken feet and drumsticks.  Not many Asian grocery stores sell it.  Whether and when you can buy it pretty much depends on your luck that day. (￣▽￣)”

Ingredients：

1 package of cut pork feet (about 2 to 3 pounds)
1 package of chicken bones
1 large piece of ginger root, cleaned and smashed
3 to 4 dried chili peppers，cut into pieces
1 small piece of cinnamon bark
3 to 4 star anies
1 to 2 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns
5 to 6 cloves
1 black cardamom，smashed
4 to 5 dried ginger
2 to 3 bay leaves
4 to 5 tablespoons rice cooking wine
salt to taste
1/4 to 1/3 cup soy sauce
1 to 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
2 to 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
water for cooking

Directions：

Clean pork feet and chicken bones and rinse well under running water.

Add dried chili peppers, star anises, Sichuan peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon, black cardamom, dried ginger and bay leaves to a piece of coffee filter paper.

Tie it up to be a spice bag

Fill a large pot with cold water.  Add cut pork feet.  Cook over high heat until water boils.  Continue cooking over high heat for 7 to 8 minutes.  Drain well and rinse with hot water.

Heat a cast iron soup pot over high heat.  Add 2 to 3 quarts of water, blanched pork feet, spice bag and rice cooking wine.

Cook until the water boils.

Cover with lid.  Reduce the heat to simmer about 90 minutes.

At the same time, blanch chicken bones in boiling water for 2 minutes.

After 90 minutes, tough tissues on pork feet gradually become tender.

Add chicken bones to cook together for another 30 to 40 minutes.

Add soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar and salt; cook together for another 5 minutes.  Tune up the heat to medium high.

Gently stir pork feet and chicken from time to time using a wood spoon.

When most the liquid in the pot has evaporated, remove from heat and serve immediately with pot. 

Anyone who hasn’t tried braised pork/chicken feet might consider it is bizarre and strange.  You have to try them yourself to know how amazing they taste.  After long hours’ braising, tough tissues and meat become soft and tender, but with a very special gelatin-like texture which makes to top of my favorite list.

I also stir fry some green vegetables to make it a delicious and nutritious meal.

Stir-fried Minced Pork and Lotus Root

中文版菜谱：

肉末炒藕丁

Lotus root might be an exotic ingredient for most American people.  Trust me, it taste very good.  Fresh lotus root is very crunchy, a bit starchy and sweet.  It has a mild nutty earthy and fruity taste.  It is can eaten raw or cooked in soup, stir-fry, and even desserts.   

There are two kinds of lotus roots.  One is crunchier, nuttier, and more refreshing.  We usually use it in stir-fry.  The other kind is more on the starchy side, which taste better in soups.  Most lotus roots available in Asian grocery are first kind, the crunchy type.  We buy them a lot, not just because it taste good on itself, but also because its mild flavor goes with almost everything in the kitchen.

One of my favorite ways is stir-fry lotus root with minced pork.  The pork fat add deep rich flavor to crunchy lotus root.

Ingredients：

1 medium size lotus root
200 to 300g minced pork
1teapsoon Sichuan peppercorns
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
1 small trunk of ginger root, chopped
1 tablespoon rice cooking wine
1 to 2 teaspoons oyster sauce
1 to 2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon dark soy sauce
1 handful dried chili peppers, chopped
freshly ground black pepper
2 to 3 tablespoon vegetable oil for stir-fry
salt to taste

Directions：

Peel and dice the lotus root.

Part of the seasonings needed in this recipe

Heat a cast iron wok over high heat.  Add oil and then pork along with ginger and garlic.  Sautee until the pork turns a little bit golden brown.

Add chili peppers.  Sautee for one minute

Add oyster sauce, rice cooking wine and black pepper.  Sautee for one minute

Add diced lotus root, and then soy sauce and dark soy sauce.  Sautee for another couple minutes.

Serve hot immediately

The dish is savory, crunchy, a little bit spicy, a little bit sweet, and loaded with umami O(∩_∩)O~

Savory and Spicy Pork Skin Jelly

中文版菜谱：水晶皮冻

Can you think of other ways to enjoy pork skin besides pork rinds?  I can!  You can braise it; or put it into soup; or make dumplings with it.  One of my favorite ways is to make savory and spicy pork skin jelly. 

It is firmer, meatier, and a bit more al dente than regular jelly.  Does it sound a little less bizarre now? O(∩_∩)O~

It is quite easy to make; just a few simple steps.  But it takes time to clean pork skin and wait for it to set at the end.

Ingredients：

2 pounds of pork skin (available in Asian grocery stores. I actually used only about 1 1/4 pounds)
3 to 4 quarts of water plus extra for cleaning
2 tablespoon rice cooking wine
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 large piece of ginger root, sliced
salt to taste

Spice bag：

2 to 3 star anises
1 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns
1 black cardamom pod
2 to 3 pieces dried ginger
4 to 5 dried chili peppers , cut into small pieces
1 to 2 bay leaves
1 small piece of cinnamon stick

Spicy dressing:

Chili oil
soy sauce
vinegar
salt
sugar
minced garlic
chopped green onion
sesame oil

Directions：

2 packages of pork skin yield a lot of jelly.  If you are planning to try just a little bit before deciding like it or not, reduce the amount to half or even to a quarter of what I use here.

Rinse the pork skins well under running water and boil in the pot for a couple minutes.

Rinse again.  With a sharp kitchen knife, remove any excess pork fat attaching to the skins.  Make sure to remove them all.  The texture of jelly depends on it.  If too much fat remains in the soup, the jelly will become greasy and won’t taste as good either.

Cut into little strips

Gather all the spices in a piece of coffee filter paper.  Tie it up.

Add water and spice bag to a cast iron pot.  I use a Le Creuset 4 1/4 soup pot.  It is one of my favorite pots in the kitchen.  It does great job in stewing, braising, and soup making.  I love it so much that I bought two of them, one in yellow color and the other one in red.

Cook over high heat until water boils.  Reduce the heat to simmer for 45 to 60 minutes or until pork skin becomes very tender.  Add rice cooking wine, salt and ground white pepper to taste.  

Discard the spice bag and ginger slices.  Pour the pork skin broth mixture into a large glass bowl.

Wait for the broth to cool down and then refrigerate for 4 to 6 hours.

Unmold it

With a sharp knife, cut the pork jelly into bite sizes.

Isn’t it beautiful?

I make dipping sauce with the pepper chili oil.  If you don’t want to make it from scratch, you can buy from Asian grocery stores.  There are dozens of different varieties to choose from.

Dipping sauce is quite simple.  It consists of chili oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, sesame oil and salt.

Sprinkle with freshly chopped green onions

It tastes good on its own.  It also goes well with crunch vegetables like cucumber O(∩_∩)O~

Or like purple napa.  We see purple cabbage all the time, but it is the first time I see purple napa