Smoked Asian Style Pork Sausages

中文菜谱： 熏猪肉肠

Summer has finally left Texas.  I have been enjoying the cool and dry weather lately, have you?

And of course, good weather means BBQ in the backyard!

This time I smoked some Asian style sausages.  They turned out great; golden brown and crunchy on the outside, juicy and tender on the inside.  The reason it is called Asian style is that seasonings used here are all Asian seasonings.  And the ground pork would be whisked/ beaten along with seasonings and corn starch until meat mixture is elastic and glutinous.

Ingredients：

1 pack of pork shoulder; weighs about 4 to 5 lbs
1/3 to 1/2 cup of rice cooking wine
1/2 cup soy sauce
3 to 4 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 to 2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 to 3/4 cup corn starch
3 to 4 tablespoons ground white pepper
4 to 5 tablespoons ground ginger
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 1/2 to 2 cups chicken stock / water
sausage casing

Directions：  

Rinse the pork shoulder under running water.  If the pieces are too big, cut them into thinner strips.

Use a meat grinder to finely grind all the pork shoulder.

Add ground pork to a stand mixer bowl, along with rice cooking wine, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, ground ginger, corn starch, sesame oil and salt.

Attach the flat beater to the stand mixer.

Whisk/ beat the pork at speed two.

When the ground pork mixture is well blended, slowly add chicken stock/ water.  Be sure all the liquid is absorbed before adding more.

It is becoming more and more elastic and shiny.

When the pork mixture becomes very glutinous, elastic and kind of feels like meat jelly, it is ready.

Cover with lid and chill the pork mixture in fridge overnight.

Attach the sausage stuffer to meat grinder.  

 Slip a piece of rinsed sausage casing to the stuffing tube.  Seal the end with a knot.

Stuff the casing with pork mixture. 

 Preheat the smoker to 250F/ 121C.  Load the smoking box with oak chips.

Add sausages.  

The waiting is really long and hard…

Two hours later, the sausages are half way cooked.  But the links are too close to each other.  So I remove them from hooks and lay them flat on a rack.

About another two hours later.  The sausages are done!

Aren’t they a beauty?  O(∩_∩)O~

The sausages are full of flavors and beautiful golden brown colors.  Score! O(∩_∩)O~

Shiu Mai with Ground Pork,Mushrooms and Sweet Rice

中文菜谱： 鲜肉蘑菇糯米烧麦

If you have been to Dim Sum place before, you might be familiar with shiu mai already.  It is made with super thin wheat dough with fillings inside.  There are so many kinds of fillings for shiu mai.  They vary from area to area.  Pork and shrimps are a very popular choice in southeast part of China.  In the north, lamb, beef, and even sweet rice can be found in shiu mai fillings too. 

Each and every one of them is very tasty.  I personally prefer the ones made with sweet rice. 

 It is quite easy to make them at home too!  With a pack of store-bought wonton wraps, we can easily make a large batch of shiu mai.

Ingredients：

1 pack wonton wraps (sold in most Asian grocery stores)
1 handful dried wild mushrooms / shiitake mushrooms
1 cup of sweet rice
100 g fresh ground pork
1 to 2 teaspoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon rice cooking wine
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon white ground pepper
salt to taste  

Sweet rice might look like regular white rice.  But they are more glutinous when cooked.  That is why sweet rice is also called sticky rice and glutinous rice.

Dry wild mushrooms are sold in most Asian grocery stores too.  They are packed with tons of earthy, nutty, and fragrant flavors; and can be used in soups, stews, or stir fries.  

They can be substituted with shiitake mushrooms too.  Shiitake mushroom is another kind of mushroom with distinctive fragrance and are wildly popular in Asian countries too.  You shall be able in find them in almost every Asian grocery stores.

Soak the dried wild mushrooms in cold water for a couple hours.

I also like to buy large pieces of pork shoulder and grind them at home using a meat grinder https://www.amazon.com/STX-International-STX-3000-TF-Turboforce-Electric/dp/B0012KJBR0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1534977533&sr=1-6&keywords=meat+grinder&linkCode=ll1&tag=yankitchentext-20&linkId=18cf3cfadc7cb6856f0f14dd0d742b33&language=en_US.

Cook the sweet rice in a rice cooker.  Sweet rice requires less water than regular rice.

Allow the rice to chill for 10 minutes or so.

Rinse the wild mushrooms under running water and drain them well.

Chop the mushrooms in a food processor.

In a large bowl, add cooked sweet rice, along with ground pork, mushrooms, oyster sauce, rice cooking wine, ginger, sesame oil, sugar, white ground pepper and salt.

Gently whisk with a pair of chopsticks.

Add a couple tablespoons of ground pork and sweet rice filling to center of the wonton wrap.

Wrap the edges towards the center.  Brush the wrap with water or egg wash if needed. 

Add a bamboo steamer lined with small squares of parchment paper.   

Repeat the process until all are finished.   The listed ingredients above yield about 50 shiu mai.  Freeze extra ones if they are too much for a single meal.

Fill a wok with water.  Cook over high heat until water boils.  Add steamer.  Continue to steam over high heat for 12 to 15 minutes.

Serve hot immediately. 

Isn’t it easy and quick?  

Sriracha sauce is great dipping sauce for shiu mai.  I also use it for dumplings too.  

Pan-fried Dumplings with Pork and Zucchini

中文菜谱： 鲜肉西葫芦煎饺

Zucchini became an important vegetable when we were still living in a small town in Michigan.  We were far away from Asian grocery stores.  So I shop at the local farmer market a lot to get fresh produce and sometimes grass fed steaks, which, by the way, were super tasty and amazing. 

Leafy greens thrived in early summer.  When July came, most vegetable booths begin to sell local zucchinis, peppers, potatoes and corns. 

That was when I bought so many zucchinis and learned to develop different ways to cook them.  Besides stir fried zucchini, my favorite way is to dry them first a little, chop them up and then put into dumplings.

Chinese dumplings are like Italian pasta.  The ingredient and flavor combinations are endless.  Any ordinary ingredient like zucchini could be used in dumpling fillings and shine like a flavor star. 

Ingredients：

1 lb pork shoulder
5 to 6 zucchinis
1 pack of dumpling wraps (sold in frozen food section in most Asian grocery stores)
1 tablespoon rice cooking wine
1 to 2 teaspoon oyster sauce
1/4  teaspoon ground white pepper
1/4  to 1/2 teaspoon corn starch
1/4  teaspoon ground ginger
1 stalks of green onions, chopped
Chicken broth/ water  
salt to taste
cooking oil
white sesame seeds
water/ egg wash (for dumpling wrapping)

Directions：

Thinly slice the zucchinis.  Use a food dehydrator to partially dry the zucchinis slices just until they are dry to touch and the edges begin to wrinkle. 

If you don’t have a food dehydrator available, air dry and sundry methods are both ok too.

Grind the pork shoulder with a meat grinder.  If you don’t have a meat grinder, remember to ask for help to do so in the store, or you can also buy the ground pork.

Add ground pork to a medium bowl, along with ground white pepper, oyster sauce, rice cooking wine, ground ginger, and corn starch.  Whisk with a pair of chopsticks or a wooden spoon.  Gradually add chicken stock/water while whisking.  The more and harder you whisk, the tender and more elastic the ground pork filling will be. 

Use a food processor to finely chop the zucchini slices. 

Add to the ground pork mixture.

Add salt to taste.  Mix with a pair of chopsticks until well combined.

Brush the dumpling wrapper’s edge with a little water or egg wash. 

Add a couple tablespoons’ pork filling to its center.

Wrap it up.

Repeat the process until all the dumplings are finished.

Heat a small cast iron skillet over medium high heat.  Add 1 to 2 tablespoons oil, and then about 10 dumplings.  Use more oil and a larger pan if you want to cook more than 10 dumplings at a time. 

Pan-fry the dumplings for a couple minutes. 

Add 1/3 cup of water.  Cover with lid immediately after adding water to the pan.

When all the water evaporates, reduce the heat to medium low.  Sprinkle with remaining chopped green onions and white sesame seeds on top.

The bottoms of dumplings are golden brown.

Remove from heat and serve them hot immediately.

There two of my personal dipping sauces for pan-fried dumplings.  One is a combination of chili oil sauce + soy sauce + balsamic vinegar.  The other is sriracha sauce hot chili sauce.

The crunchy golden bottoms of the dumplings are the best part! 

Zucchini’s flavor really stands out in the dumplings.  The fillings taste juicy, tender and with a significant sweetness from zucchinis.  Yum!

Stir-fried Fava Beans with Ground Pork and Pickled Vegetable

中文菜谱： 碎米芽菜肉末炒蚕豆

Fresh fava beans are such a culinary delicacy.  The fresh beans come with light green color and a mild grassy, earthy and refreshing scent and taste.  When cooked, they become a bit sweet and starchy. 

For those who have never had fava beans before, they are very similar to what young lima beans taste like.  The skin on the outside is a little bit firmer than lima beans.  And they are both very tasty!

I cook with fresh fava beans a lot.  The best season for them is late summer.  And they are usually available in Asian grocery markets.  If you live in Houston like I do, Central Market is another good place to shop for fresh fava beans too.

Ingredients：

2 lbs fresh fava beans
200  to 300 g ground pork
1/2  package of Sichuan pickled vegetable, finely chopped (1/2 package weighs about 50 g.  It is sold in most Asian grocery stores)
1/2 to 1 teaspoon oyster sauce
2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon dark soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup of chicken broth/ water
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
1 slice of ginger root, minced
1 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns
5 to 6 dry red chili peppers, diced
vegetable oil for cooking
salt to taste

Fresh young fava beans are usually sold in pods so that they stay fresh and the beans don’t get bruised. 

Pick the ones with big fat “belly”.

Peel fava beans from their pods.

Directions：

Heat a cast iron wok over high heat.  Add oil, along with minced garlic, ginger, diced peppers and ground pork.  Stir fry over high heat for several minutes until the ground pork begin to turn slightly golden brown.

Add chopped Sichuan pickled vegetable. Sautee for a minute or two. 

Add fava beans and sautee everything together for another couple minutes.

Add chicken broth/water, along with rice cooking wine, oyster suace, low sodium soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar and salt.  Cover with lid and reduce the heat to simmer for 7 to 8 minutes.

Turn the heat back to high and cook until the broth evaporate. 

Sautee over high heat for another couple minutes. 

Remove from heat and serve hot immediately.

Short Pork Ribs Braised in Soy Sauce

中文菜谱： 不用油的红烧排骨，一样软糯鲜香

Recently I have been more enthusiastic about pork ribs than before. 

Asian grocery stores in Houston area are very customer-friendly.  They sell pre-cut pork ribs in the shape of long thin strips so that you don’t have to go through all the trouble to cut them yourself.  They also help to custom cut the meat of your choice.  Such a life saver! O(∩_∩)O~

I always bring back a few rib strips from my trip to Asian grocery stores.  What I am cooking today is short pork ribs braised in soy sauce. Yum!

Ingredients:

2 strips of pork ribs (baby back /spare ribs cut into long thick strips.  Two weigh about 1lb.  )
1 small piece of ginger root, sliced
1/4 low sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon crushed rock sugar
1 to 2 tablespoons rice cooking wine
2 to 3 star anises
3 to 4 cloves
2 bay leaves
boiling water
salt to taste

Directions：

star anises are really amazingly beautiful.

With a sharp kitchen knife, cut the ribs into one by one inch pieces.  Soak in cold water for 4 to 5 hours.  Change the water a few times in between.  

Heat a cast iron wok over medium heat.  Add ribs, with the fatty side down.  Flip over when they are golden brown. 

Add crushed rock sugar.  Sauté the sugar with ribs together.  The sugar will melt quickly and coat the ribs with amber color syrup.

Rock sugar is an essential ingredient in Asian cooking.  It is always available in Asian grocery store.  When unavailable, it can be substituted with regular cane sugar.

Add boiling water, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, rice cooking wine, sliced ginger root, star anises, cloves and bay leaves. 

Cook over high heat until the broth boils.  Cover with lid and reduce the heat to simmer for about 40 minutes. 

Turn the heat back to high.  Add salt to taste. 

As the broth evaporates, the ribs are getting more and more beautifully golden brown.

Remove from the heat when there is no extra liquid in the wok. 

Serve hot immediately.

The ribs have been simmered and braised for almost an hour.  So they are tender and juicy; sweet and savory all at the same time.  It is full of comfort food flavors.