char siu

It was my first time using the NOH char siu packet.

In Hawaii, our char siu is sweet and red.

I find that the red foods turn off a lot of people in Japan, not sure why though.

Japan's char siu is grey-ish brown and savory, but the red, sweet version is what I grew up on and love it.

The packet says to add water, but according to my mom (and she knows best), she says not to add the water, just dump the contents of the packet and marinade what you want...pork, chicken, both.

Since I only had one packet and needed to bake it on my oven's turntable, I did some pork spareribs and chicken drumettes.

The packet says to marinate for at least 4 hours but I let it marinate overnight.

The following morning, I baked them off following the directions on the packet and in about 40 minutes...voila!

My blog friend, Kim, tweeted that her dad often makes this sweet type of char siu, slices it thin and puts it in banh mi...so you know what I had for lunch yesterday??

> Banh Mi! minus the cilantro because I couldn't find some at the store.

(I actually found some at another store after lunch but wasn't willing to pay almost $2 for 1 stalk of cilantro!)

Since I had cooked bone-in pork spareribs, I took the meat off the bones and sliced them up for the sandwich.

I knew this was sandwich meant to happen because I had daikon and carrot in my refrig.

While the char siu baked, I whizzed some in my food processor and threw together the pickled veggies.

Then while the pickles soaked, I shopped for the baguette and cucumber for the sandwich.

Even without the cilantro, this sandwich was awesome, sweet sour and a little salty.

Then for dinner, I took some char siu chicken off the bone and shredded it for chinese chicken salad.

I also used okara chips because the taste resembles wonton chips.

Even though the weather is icy and cold, there was lots of comfort food and sunshine in my kitchen today.

NOTES: next time use boneless pork belly and boneless chicken, also buy more packets.

sunomono & kinpira

When the weather is humid and hot, what do you like to eat?

I tend to favor things with vinegar in them because the sourness paired with a little sweetness is somehow refreshing to me.

This is what I made for dinner last night: Tako sunomono & kinpira

Tako sunomono (Octopus marinated in vinegar)-serves 4
150g boiled tako(octopus) legs
4 cucumber
20g wakame (kelp)
salt
wasabi(Japanese horseradish)

Marinade: 6 tablespoons vinegar
1.5 tablespoons sugar
1.5 tablespoons mirin (sweet rice wine)
1.5 tablespoons dashi (stock)--if none on hand, just water will be fine
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon shoyu (soy sauce)

Slice the cucumber thin and salt, leave for at least 3 minutes
Take hot water and pour it over the tako legs (this is to get rid of the fishy smell it may have, plus get the tako ready to soak in the marinade)
Cut tako & wakame into bite size pieces
Assemble marinade, put everything in.
When serving, you can add some wasabi on the side.

Another type of food that I like to make is something spicy. The second dish I made for dinner was kinpira. It was the first time for me to try this recipe and boy, was it good! Be sure to serve it with lots of rice.

Adapted from "Orange Page--Obaachan no aji (book 5)"
1 package pre-cleaned kinpira mix*
200g minced pork
1.5 tablespoons sesame seed oil
1/2 teaspoon tobanjan (Chinese chili paste)
1 tablespoon miso (soy bean paste)
2 tablespoons sake (rice wine)
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 tablespoon shoyu (soy sauce)

Rinse kinpira mix and set aside. *you can sometimes find kinpira mix in the refrigerated sections or freezer sections, it should have gobo (burdock), carrots and sometimes renkon (lotus root) in it.
Add oil to pan and coat kinpira mix well.
Add tobanjan, when you can smell the chilies, add the pork.
Cook until pork changes color, then add rest of seasonings.
Cook until most of the liquid evaporates.

Both dishes pair nicely with beer and can be served as pupus (Hawaiian for appetizers). Be sure to make the sunomono in advance so it can take in some of the marinade. If you are a working mom or dad, you could probably make the sunomono the night before, or both dishes the night before, so that when you come home you can just heat up the kinpira. You can also cut back the fat from the kinpira by making the dish in advance and scraping off the oil the next day.

Enjoy!