Doesn't TaZte Like Chicken

Location: My tiny kitchen

When I was naming our food blog, the first name that came to my mind was Doesn’t TaZte Like Chicken. I didn’t commit to this name right away though. I considered many other names, including a few that I forced out of my friends. Finally after a few days of intense consideration, I decided on choosing my first candidate.

I always want to share food and recipes that are a little different. These are food and recipes that I grew up with and might be familiar to some people. To most people however, these food are foreign and are usually not consumed by the mainstream. These food might not be available at all supermarkets and they usually have a distinctive or sometimes even repulsive smell and taste. When people eat these food for the first time, nobody will say, “Hey, it tastes like chicken!”.

Shrimp paste is a common ingredient used in Chinese and Southeast Asian cooking. It is made of fermented shrimps and a large amount of salt. It has a distinctive and pungent smell. Like blue cheese, shrimp paste is the kind of food that you either love it or can’t stand. If you love it, you will agree that it’s one of the best seasonings for meat.

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This is the simplest shrimp paste recipe that I saw my parents make again and again. It’s also one of my favourite recipes because the pork becomes very tasty after it’s marinated in shrimp paste. I find this dish best served with rice.

Dice pork into cubes that are 1/2 inch in size. You can use tenderloin or any cut that you like. Prepare about 1 and 1/2 cup of pork.

Into the pork add:
- 1 tsp of red chili flakes
- 4 cloves of minced garlic (the more garlic, the merrier!)
- 2 tsp of shrimp paste. You can get this from Asian supermarkets. I find the brands made in Hong Kong are the best. I always use the brand shown in the picture above.
- Freshly ground black pepper

Marinate the pork for 12 hours.

The best part of this recipe is the cooking. I always feel that there is almost no cooking involved! “Eating uncooked pork? You’ll get sick!”, you might gasp. The pork is cooked in the rice cooker along with rice. Because the rice cooker gives off a continuous stream of medium heat, the pork would not be overcooked.

Put 1 and 1/2 cup of rice into the rice cooker. Add water according to the instruction listed for your rice cooker. Before the rice gets fully cooked (that is 30 minutes after the rice cooker started cooking for my rice cooker), place the pork on top of the rice. Make sure the pork is placed on the rice as one layer and no piece is stacked on top of another. After the rice is done, let them sit in the rice cooker to keep warm for 20 minutes.

The juice of the pork seeps into the rice as it gets cooked, which makes the rice very flavourful. The shrimp paste makes the pork tastes extra-savory, while the chili flakes gives the dish a nice kick.

Location: my tiny kitchen

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As ET mentioned in his recent post, we had a great BBQ at H’s place last weekend. We spent a joyful evening with good conversations while enjoying H’s great BBQ creations. I love every BBQ dish H cooked, but if I had to choose, my favourite would be the pork ribs. H’s ribs are innovative. They are not cooked in a traditional BBQ sauce like the variety made by Tony Romas or Kraft. H’s ribs are marinated and barbecued in a Korean BBQ sauce. The Korean BBQ sauce has a distinctive soy sauce flavour, which makes it the perfect seasoning for pork. Another unique characteristic about H’s ribs is the texture. H’s ribs were tender, but still provided enough firmness to provide a satisfying chew. Before having H’s ribs, I would never be convinced that anything short of fall-of-the-bones tender could taste so fantastic. In fact, I like them so much that on the next day, I rushed to the Asian supermarket and picked up a big bottle of the Korean BBQ sauce. On Monday, that is less than 48 hours after I had H’s pork ribs, I was in my kitchen replicating his creation.

Because I don’t have a BBQ grill (yeah, I can’t believe this either, but it’s a fact), I bake the ribs in the oven. My opinion might be a little biased, but I think the result is quite close to H’s.

You will need:
- 1 slab of back ribs
- 1 bottle of Wang Korean BBQ sauce (if the brand “Wang” is not available, use any Korean BBQ sauce)
- 2 tbsp Kosher salt
- Freshly ground pepper

Put salt and pepper on both sides of ribs. Place ribs flat in a dish. Pour a generous amount of BBQ sauce all over ribs. Marinate the ribs for at least 12 hours.

Heat oven to 450F. Place ribs in a baking pan lined with foil. Bake ribs for 1/2 hour. After 1/2 hour, bake ribs for another 1/2 hour by basting ribs every 15 minutes with the marinate .

Take ribs out of the oven and let it cool for 20 minutes. Cut and serve.

I try to be good and therefore I also made some veggie to go with the ribs. These grilled zucchinis are sweet and tasty. They are also one of H’s creations.

After discovering the Korean BBQ sauce at H’s, I have been going nuts about it. I have used it at every chance I find, or with every type of meat that I can get my hands on. The application is endless – it’s a great marinate for short ribs, for chicken wings etc.

Location: My tiny kitchen

I always pay attention to the side dishes that comes with fried food. KFC sells their finger linking goods with potato salad and coleslaw. Greek restaurants always serve calamari with tzatziki. But when it comes to fried pork chops, I never see a consistent combination. The Taiwanese are one of the experts at making cutlets. Their pork chops are thin and the batter is never too thick. I like the Japanese Tonkatsus as well, but I never care for the sweet brown sauce served on the side. Eating all these different kinds of cutlets make me wonder: what if I eat my cutlets with coleslaw and tzatziki? The combination turned out to be amazing.

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This recipe serves 2 people who hungry people who really love pork chops.

Try to buy pork chops with a thin cut. The chops I used are about 1/3” thick, bone in. Make an incision near the bone without cutting the bone entirely off; doing this will ensure the chops get fully cooked during frying. Place 5 pork chops on a plate and put in:

- 1 tsp of salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tbsp of onion powder (onion is the best blessing for pork)
- 1 1/2 tbsp of coarse grain mustard

Marinate the chops in the fridge for at least 6 hours.

Fill a quart pan with oil up to 1/3 of its height. Do not pour more oil than half full. Insert a candy thermometer (one that reads up to 400F) into the oil. Do not let the bottom of the thermometer to touch the bottom of the pan. I learned this when my last thermometer exploded in a pan of boiling oil, which was not a fun experience My thermometer now has a clip that clips to the side of the pan. Let the oil temperature to rise to 350F.

Panko is a Japanese breadcrumb that can be found in most Asian grocery stores. Pour the panko onto a plate. Drench the chops into the panko, dust off any excess. Slowly place one pork chop into the quart pan. Fry the pork chop for 2 minutes. During frying, keep the oil at 350F.

Place the chops on a plate lined with paper towel. Let chops cool for a few minutes. Remove the bone from the chops and cut them into strips.

To assemble, put coleslaw, tzatziki and lemon wedges (if desired) on a plate. Chops taste best when served warm. My favourite part of a pork chop is the tiny piece of meat located at the top of the L shape bone. It’s the tenderest part of the chop because it usually has a tiny bit of fat. Since I cut off the bones, I usually save the bones all to myself and pig out in the kitchen before the strips are served. Oink