Char Siu - Chinese BBQ

When I was younger, my friends and I would always go jump in our ragged cars with our fresh, new driver's license and go eat at Hong Kong Buffet restaurant. Enamored with all types of Asian cuisine and tough choices to put on the plate,  my friends piled their plates with crab legs, I usually high-piled barbequed pork on top of white rice. I loved the smoky, sticky pork pieces. It seemed to go well with anything mixed on my crowded plate.

I never knew the time and effort that went into preparing such a dish. Nor did I know the official name. Char Siu or Cha Shao is a marinated, sweet, slow roasted pork with a deep red color usually found in dim sum-steamed pork buns and in fried rice. Lots of ingredients make up the marinade but each ingredient plays a key role in the final product of char siu.

I took a trip to a local asian market, Thai Asian Market in Menomonee Falls, to pick up the key ingredients. They stock authentic asian products at a very, very reasonable price.

The marinade:

• 1 cup of sugar
• 1/2 cup of kosher sea salt
• 
  
  1/2 cup of light soy sauce
• 
  
  1/2 cup of dark molasses
• 
  
  1/2 cup of Chinese rice wine
• 
  
  1/4 cup of honey
• 
  
  1/4 cup of dark soy sauce
• 
  
  1/4 cup of kecap manis, Indonesian sweet soy sauce
• 
  
  1/4 cup of oyster sauce
• 
  
  1/4 cup of hoisin sauce
• 
  
  1/4 cup of garlic chili sauce
• 
  
  2 tablespoons of Chinese five spice powder
• 
  
  2 tablespoons of ground annatto

Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and mix well. Stir over medium to low heat until the sugar has dissolved. This should take a few minutes. Do not let the marinade heat up enough to bubble and simmer.

For the pork, use boneless or remove the bone of a Boston Butt or Pork Shoulder. Cut shoulder into steak size. Place pork and marinade in a plastic bag or glass casserole container to marinate. I marinaded the pork for 4 days. The longer it marinades, the more intense the flavor. If four days is too much for you, marinade overnight.

The steaks are ready for the grill. Prepare a two-zone grill with the coals on one side and indirect heat on the other side. Place a tin foil pan next to the coals. The water keeps the meat moist as well as collecting the drippings from the meat. Soak and drain wood chips for smoking. Heat up coals and lay chips on the coals. Place steaks on the indirect side of grill grate.

The smoking/cooking time depends on the size of your pork cuts. I smoked the char siu for three hours. You want to cook the interior of the meat to a minimum temperature of 160 degrees. Here is the pork after two hours of smoking.

After you are done cooking, let the pork rest for about 10 minutes. I coated the char siu with a mixture of one tablespoon of hoisin sauce mixed with one tablespoon of kecap manis.

Cut char siu into strips or bits, however you prefer.

Served over white rice with pickled cucumber and radishes with extra hoisin/kecap manis sauce drizzled on top.

The char siu tasted just like I remember from the Asian buffets I used to eat at. Smoky and sticky-tasting with hints of sweetness, the pork tasted great next to the bite of pickled vegatables. The marinade is made up of a lot of ingredients but they all work together and no ingredient outdoes the other. I love how pork can take on a lot of wide scale ingredients and give you a bomb of flavor. The smoke brings a lot of character to the dish as well and it wouldn't taste the same without it. Simply roasting the pork would give you a succulent, tender piece of meat but it would be void of the extra layer of taste and crunch from the bark.

It was a near perfect dish for me. I wished I had minced green onions and cilantro for a little herby, fresh taste. But nonetheless, it was a great dish to prepare for a summer afternoon meal.

Char siu is very versatile as far as incorporating it into dishes. Chopped into fried rice, pillowed in steamed buns, ladled into ramen soup or pho, combined with steamed vegatables, the Chinese BBQ pork will not leave your taste buds wanting more. Man oh man, was that good!

Argentine Hot Dog - CHORIPAN!

Choripán is the ultimate Argentinian street food. Chori means chorizo while pan means bread. Chorizo is grilled and then split in half, served on a toasty French roll and covered with Chimichurri sauce, simple and basic but blast full of flavor and fun.

Chorizo Argentino is a unique sausage, different from Mexican and Spanish style chorizo. It is made with vino tinto-red wine, whole cloves, head of garlic, pork, beef, bacon, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and its shining feature, pimenton dulce-paprika. Stuffed in hog casing, this sausage is great for grilling.

The chimichurri is a spicy sauce of dried chili, garlic, oil, oregano, vinegar. Like many sauces, everyone has their own style or version of recipes with their own personal ingredients. But whatever your recipe is, you should load it up on the chorizo.

The chimichurri consists of:

• 2 cups parlsey, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 3/4 teaspoon cumin seed
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup white vinegar

Grill chorizos over direct heat for 20 minutes total, about 10 minutes a side. Grill French roll over direct heat until charred.

Simplicity in its finest moment. Bread, meat and herbs all working together to create huge flavors. The crispy bread adds a crunchy texture to the sandwich. The french roll is the right choice of bread holding the chorizo and sauce well together. The chorizo is seasoned mildly, not very spicy to the taste. It complements well with the sauce. After a big bite, you'll have a river of chimichurri liquid dripping down your chin.

I understand why the Argentians love this sandwich. It pleases the tastebuds and fills the belly. Suitable for the street, it is a quick eat while it could nourish late-night partygoers.I definitely rate this sandwich high and recommend it to everyone. You just have to find Argentian chorizo, it is a hard sausage to discover. I ordered mine from La Tienda.

Usinger Bratwurst - Smoke 'Em for 60

Another post on Wisconsin bratwurst but I can't help myself, they are so good and I must spread the word!

This time I used Usinger's bratwurst. Usinger's is located in downtown Milwaukee on Old World Third St. It started as a butcher shop in 1880 and has grown into a family-owned sausage-making factory offering everything from bratwurst and hot dogs to blood sausage and head cheese.

Here is their historic television commercial.



I love beer brats like anyone who has had them but smoking the bratwurst over low heat brings a whole new flavor to it. Hence, the self-pinned name Smoke 'Em for 60 Bratwurst. Smoked and cooked for 60 minutes over indirect heat turns the Usingers into snappy, juicy, delectable goodness. Condiments go well with them but they are so flavorfull, it tastes great on an undressed bun.

Usinger's sell their brats fresh in the stores, uncooked and not frozen. The bratwurst are made of finely-grounded lean pork. Oh yeah, real nice!

Prep your grill for indirect heat setup. Use a charcoal basket to keep the charcoal nice and tight together. Pre-soak your wood chips for 30 minutes and drain before using. Place a drip pan on indirect side to protect grill. Place bratwurst on indirect side of grill. I flipped the bratwurst every 10 minutes for a total of 60 minutes grilling time. Add more chips after 30 minutes. 

Here are the Usingers after 30 minutes. Color is starting to develop.  

The internal temperature was kept between a good smoke temp of 225-250 degrees. After 60 minutes, the bratwurst turned a deep red color. These sausages are packed full of juice and mighty flavor.

Served with my Mom's pasta salad and Milwaukee's condiments, Stadium Secret Sauce, Kopp's Dusseldorf Mustard and Miller High Life beer. These bratwursts are favorites for tailgators all over the state. Top quality sausage scented with the tasty smoke of hickory wood, the smoked Usingers will knock you off your feet. Easy to make but it begs you for your patience. Smoke 'em for 60 minutes and you'll be satisfied at the finish.

Usinger's, America's feinsta wursta!

As the website says:

Usinger's is a one of a kind, nationally recognized family business devoted to the craft of sausage making. Feinschmeckers (gourmets) will discover over 70 varieties of old world sausage. From a better bratwurst to an authentic beerwurst, superior German-style wurst doesn't get any better than Usinger's... producing quality sausage products and providing excellence in customer service since 1880!

Pit Bossin' - North Carolina BBQ

You could call it Pulled Pork but in North Carolina, it is simply called barbeque. Barbequed pulled pork is part of the Holy Trinity of American BBQ. Born in the Carolinas, pork shoulder is slowly cooked by wood smoke and coals for hours until the meat becomes so tender it can be pulled apart by your fingers. Traditionally, a whole hog was cooked in a pit, "every part of the pig except the squeal."

Barbeque is taken quite serious in the Carolinas. Each region offers it own version on BBQ whether it is differences in sauces, rubs, coleslaw or cuts of meat. One similarity is that hickory wood is used to smoke the meat. It is widely used in the midwest and south as it is a favorite among barbequers.

Pork shoulder, Boston butt, the picnic shoulder, is typically the cut of meat to cook if a whole hog isn't available. It needs to be cooked slow and low for it to become real tender and moist.  Find yourself a big pork shoulder, over 5 to 6 lbs. First, start off by getting together a rub to season the meat.

For this barbeque, I used Steven Raichlen's recipe from Barbeque Bible and added a few personal touches.

For the rub:

• 
  
  1 tablespoon paprika
• 
  
  2 teaspoons brown sugar
• 
  
  1.5 teaspoons chile powder
• 
  
  1/2 teaspoon celery salt
• 
  
  1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
• 
  
  1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
• 
  
  1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 
  
  1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 
  
  1/4 teaspoon salt

Combine in a bowl and coat the pork shoulder evenly on all sides. In order for the shoulder to retain its shape, I tied the meat together with some kitchen twine. Cover the meat and place in the refridgerator for as long as you like. I kept mine in the fridge for over a day. Be sure to take meat out for at least an hour before cooking to bring it to room temperature.

This particular cut from the butcher looks like a pork loin to me but nonetheless, it will be tasty no matter how it looks.

Anyway, time to get ready for some barbequing. Start by soaking your hickory wood chips in water for at least 30 minutes. Set up your grill for indirect cooking. Also, place a drip pan half-filled with water under the grate. The pan will catch the drippings from the meat and the water will help keep the meat moist.

The next part of the process is based on personal preference. This is where BBQ can be a heavily debated topic with people having all sorts of opinions, methods, techniques on how to cook the BBQ. No matter what way to go about doing things, you want to finish with great BBQ.

The finished product is when the meat has reached an internal temperature of 190 degrees or more. This is when the pork can be pulled apart and when the bone just falls out. My method was keeping a smoke/heat temperature at and around 200-250 degrees.

I just installed this grill thermometer. It prevents me from having to guess on internal temperature and it makes it easier in general for barbequing. I highly recommend using one if you don't already.

I started with about 15-20 coals in the coal basket preheated from the chimney starter. I added a handful of wood chips. The chips would last about 30-40 minutes. I added chips after each hour of cooking. Resort to only opening the lid to replentish coals or chips as the internal temperature will fall dramatically when the lid is raised.

Here is the pork shoulder after 4 hours. You can see the bark created on the shoulder from the meat. This crunchy outer layer contains a lot of flavor! The drip pan also helps to keep you grill clean too.

I smoked and cooked the shoulder for 8 hours keeping the internal temp at and around 200-250 degrees. At this point, the pork reached an internal temperature of 190 degrees.

The Weber kettle is an amazing grill and very versatile. It really held the temperature at a steady level for 8 hours. I only added a few extra coals during the cooking process. I've wanted a professional smoker in the past but the Weber is good enough for me. I'm so in love with it.

After the pork is done, let it rest for 10-15 minutes under some foil. Honestly, I skipped this step. I spent every minute of the 8 hours in my backyard tending the grill, doing crosswords, listening to my iPod and the baseball game, drinking beers. Huddled in the cloud of pork-scented smoke, my patience was gone, I was so hungry.

Use your fingers or two forks or "bear paws" to rip apart the meat.  The aroma is amazing and it is hard to not steal bits of pork to sample. Check out the pink smoke ring and the dark bark. Oh man, that is BBQ!

This is where the Carolina influence comes into play, the sauce. Carolina BBQ sauce is different than Memphis or Kansas City sauce. Its primary base is vinegar instead of heavy, tomato based sauces. Carolina sauce is thinner and more runny.

Apple Cidar vinegar combined with pepper and brown sugar offers a tangy flavor to the pork but damn does it go well together. Here is the Vinegar sauce recipe:

• 
  
  2 cups cidar vinegar
• 
  
  1/2 cup ketchup
• 
  
  1/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 
  
  4 teaspoon salt
• 
  
  3 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 
  
  1 teaspoon black pepper
• 
  
  1 teaspoon white pepper

Combine all ingredients with 1 1/3 cup water and whisk until sugar and salt dissolve. Place in a squeeze bottle and squirt all over the pulled pork.

This sauce is really superb, really fantastic on smoked pork. The tanginess combines well with tender pork and pairs well with the smoke flavor. All I can really say is that this is perfect, a Heaven-on-Earth food experience. And you know what? We aren't done compiling flavors yet!

Another widely debated topic of Carolina BBQ is the coleslaw. I had to be respectful and take in the entire experience so I wanted to make some slaw from scratch instead of purchasing a container of it. Yeah, it is easy to make and it is something that shouldn't be omitted from a BBQ pulled pork recipe.

Creamy slaw vs Vinegary slaw is a hot debate but this particular Carolina slaw recipe fits perfect with the pulled pork. Serve on top of the pork in the sandwich. The ingredients:

• 
  
  1 head cabbage, fine chop
• 
  
  1 red bell pepper, thinly cut
• 
  
  1 sweet onion, fine chop
• 
  
  1 carrot, grated
• 
  
  1 cup sugar
• 
  
  1 cup apple cidar vinegar
• 
  
  2/3 cup vegatable oil
• 
  
  2 teaspoons dry mustard
• 
  
  1 teaspoon salt
• 
  
  1 teaspoon black pepper

Combine sugar, vinegar, oil, salt, and pepper and place on low heat. Stir to dissolve sugar and salt. Pour over vegatables and mix. Cover and refridgerate until cold.

Served with a side of homemade pickled salad of cucumber and radish, North Carolina-style Pulled Pork Sandwich with South Carolina Vinegar Coleslaw.

I would never serve the slaw on the side, it needs to be piled high on top of the pork and sandwiched between a large, toasted roll. I can understand how pulled pork is considered one of the most popular, favorite BBQ dishes. Everything was delicious. The crunch of the bark, cabbage, carrots went perfectly with the tender pork. The best damn sandwich of all time. You may think with a sauce and slaw flavored with vinegar would result in a mouthful of vinegar but it really didn't taste that way. Everything was balanced well together. This is why BBQ is widely debated because much thought, love, passion goes into the creation of it. So many methods to come to this result but Amen, this is the result you want. Something that just blows your mind. Yeah I know it is just food but come on, try it, and you'll know what I am talking about.

BBQ, to me, is more than just the food. It is about slowing down your life, relaxing, hanging out with people you love, taking it easy. To just sit in your backyard on a Saturday and all you have to do is tend the grill, to me, is the American Dream.

Daeji Bulgogi - Korean BBQ

It has been a summer of barbeque. I love trying all types of regional BBQ whether it is from America or other parts of the world. All cultures have their own version of barbeque and while most have similarities in seasoning or preparation, the differences stand out.

Daeji Bulgogi basically translates to pork fire meat. Thinly sliced pork is grilled over a red hot fire. The pork is flavored and spiced up by a Korean chile paste called gochujang. It provides plenty of kick and makes you sweat big time. A Korean friend of mine gave me a container of gochujang so the first thing that came to mind was to slap it on a big chunk of pork.

On its own, daeji bulgogi (I love the name) is just pork. It is usually not eaten alone, you need to serve it with some bang-it-home additions and side dishes to fully complement the pork. I chose to serve the daeji bulgogi with Tofu Kimchee Stew.

Here is what you need to marinate the pork:

• 2 lbs pork shoulder, I used pork shoulder steaks, sliced into thin strips/bits
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 2 tablespoon rice wine
• 1 tablespoon, or heaping spoonful of chile paste, gochujang
• 4 bulbs of garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 teaspoon salt
• 1 medium onion
• 2 green onions
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

The gochujang is the star ingredient in this dish. Visit an Asian market to buy the chile paste. It is a dense, heavy, deep red-colored paste that packs plenty of punch. It is used in many Korean dishes like Bibimbap and soup/stews.

Combine all ingredients and mix together to cover the pork. Place in the refridgerator for a few hours or preferably overnight.

Get the grill ready after the meat is done marinating.  Set your grill up for direct or indirect grilling. I like to grill indirect for slow-cooked meat. 

 I also used a grill tray so I wouldn't lose a piece of pork through the grates. If you use a grill tray, preheat it on the grill for a few minutes before adding the meat.

Grill direct on each side of meat for a minute or two. Remember, the pieces of pork are cut thin so be careful to not overcook them.

I moved the tray over to the indirect side to slow-cooked the pork after the sear. Also, I chose to cook the Kimchee stew on the grill so I needed to make room for my pot.

To utilize the Daeji Bulgogi, I made Tofu Kimchee Stew. Here is what you need to make the stew:

• Soft or firm tofu, drained and cubed
• One jar of mild or hot kimchee
• 1 onion, sliced
• heaping spoonful of gochujang
• water to cover ingredients in pot
• handful of daeji bulgogi
• salt/pepper to taste

Place pot on stove over medium heat or place on grill over direct. Saute onion in pot with sesame oil until tender. Add rest of the ingredients to pot and cover with water. Simmer until broth is nice and hot. I chose to add the pork after the stew was finished as I didn't want to overcook the pork.

As the pork was resting on the indirect side, the kimchee stew took about 12-15 minutes to cook.  Just keep a watchful eye on the pork. Again, I want to make my point about not overcooking the thinly sliced pork. If it gets overcooked, it turns tough and chewy like cardboard and ruins the food experience.

The meat had a good kick to it from the spicy chile paste and the pork shoulder was a good cut to use as it was tender and moist. The pork would taste great over a simple bowl of white steamed rice but really, you need to pump it up a little bit, pack up some big flavors. The tofu kimchee stew was the perfect fit for it.

The kimchee added a good bite to the stew. The cabbage made it nice and crunchy. The gochujang turned the broth into a spicy shade of orange. I added about 2 tablespoons mixed into the stew and it really turned up the heat of the dish but it wasn't too overpowering.

The pork could have been cut into smaller pieces but I thought it tasted perfect with the spices and vegatables. Instead of using white onion, I should have cut up more green onions and garnished the stew with cilantro but otherwise the dish was fantastic.

This dish was quite easy to make and the flavor was off the charts. Impress your friends or make your girlfriend/boyfriend real happy. Just let that orange broth drip down your chin and sweat bead up on your brow. It is all worth the effort.

Home-Cured Pancetta Part II

Today is the day for me to cut down my pancetta. Click here to read Part I of this experiment. This new experience has been fun, exciting, and nervous. I have never dry-cured any meats before so I was skeptical that I would be successful in my attempt. It has been hanging for three weeks in my basement laundry room. I have been trying to keep the humidity near and around 60 percent. The weather in Milwaukee has been quite humid and muggy lately so the basement is a little warmer than usual.

I have inspected the pancetta everyday for new spots of moldy fuzz. I removed the spots with a brined-soaked towel but I received some great advice from a reader named Sherry to use red wine vinegar. Applying the red wine vinegar on the mold location prevented any new mold to grow in the same spot. I believe it worked quite well. Thank you.

Here is the pancetta after two weeks.

The colors have darkened while the meat became more firm. The top and bottoms ends, however, firmed up passed the point of being edible. The ends can be cut off though for a flat edge.

Here is the pancetta today, three weeks in since being hung to dry.

The pancetta is clearly ready to come down. The top end is rock hard while the rest of the meat is firm to the touch. The colors have seemed to reach its aging look. The aromas of the spices and herbs are still amazing at this point.

I did a final inspection on the cutting board for creeper molds. The green mold can penetrate and travel through the meat but I did not see any evidence of it. I cut off the ends since they dried hard and to give it a nice, cut end.

The cross section looks pretty amazing. I think it looks like I did an okay job at curing the pork belly. The meat has a good red color to it. It doesn't look weak or uncured.

I placed one in plastic wrap and decided to freeze it. The pancetta can be in your freezer for up to 4 months. For easier slicing, it helps to place the meat in the freezer for 30 minutes to make a fine, thin cut.

I'd have to say that I am happy with the results. You shouldn't eat pancetta raw so be sure to cook it up before eating.

For a quick sample, I just fried them up for a bit and garnished with fresh basil from my garden. It was quite salty by itself but then it shouldn't be served on its own either. Pancetta is a great ingredient to add to pasta dishes as well as soups. I could recognize the seasonings very easily. The thyme and cracked pepper were very prominent while the brown sugar created a little sweetness. Pancetta is different from bacon as it is not smoked so bacon really isn't a good substitute for it in dishes.

The only special ingredient to get is the sodium nitrate, the pink salt. After that, most ingredients are in the supermarkets and butcher shops near you. The process requires more time than actual work. And if you can get past the mold and fuzz and not freak out at the sight of it, home-cured pancetta is something any home chef can do.

BBQ Pork Steak & Beans

Pork steak is a staple of St. Louis-style barbeque. They mainly prepare it in two ways; simmered in a tomato-based sauce and/or slowly cooked and then caramalized. This tender, meaty entree is the centerpiece of many backyard weekend barbeques.

The steak is cut from the pork shoulder/pork butt/picnic arm shoulder. It is a fatty, meaty cut that needs to be cooked slowly to break down the protein to produce a tender, tasty steak.

I decided to grill the steaks over high heat for a quick sear and then add them to the sauce for a slow simmer to achieve a tender, meaty-tomatoey-beany taste. Everything is cooked on the grill which adds a smoky flavor to it.

Before you prep your sauce, you want to start the grill. Fill up the chimney starter and place all the hot coals on one side of the grill for a two-zone fire. You want the direct side piping hot, a one-to-two count with your hand placed over the hot coals.

You can use your favorite barbeque sauce but I prefer to make my own. The sauce ingredients consist of:

• 40z bottle of tomato ketchup
• 1 cup apple cidar vinegar
• 3 to 4 tbl of  Worchestershire sauce
• 28 oz can of baked beans
• 1 tbl chile powder, garlic powder, cumin
• 1 tsp celery seed
• 1/2 chopped, large onion
• 3 to 4 chopped, pickled Hungarian sweet peppers, you can use jalapenos for extra heat
• 12 oz beer
• hot sauce, to taste

Place a pot on the grill and add your ingredients. I began with the bottle of ketchup, followed by the vinegar, Worchestershire, veggies, spices, beans, and then finishing it with the beer. Mix and combine well.

You want to place the pot on the indirect side of the grill.

Any pot will do as long as it can withstand the heat of the grill. I used an 8 quart size stockpot but a foil pan or a cast iron dutch oven would work well too.

I seasoned my pork steaks with black pepper and garlic salt but you can season it with whatever you prefer. Set the steaks over the high heat and sear each side for about 2 minutes.

After the steaks are seared, nestle them in the simmering sauce and give it a good mix. Coat the steaks with the sauce.

You want a pot that will fit so the grill lid can be closed but if it doesn't, not a big deal. Mine was too large so I kept the grill open. If it does fit with the grill lid on, add some soaked wood chips to the coals to add a layer of smoke flavor to the pork and beans.

You want to grill for about two hours. Mostly, I kept the pot over indirect heat with a the pot lid on but I did place it over the direct heat at times. I did not add coals to the grill so when the high heat lowered to low-medium heat, that is when I placed the pot over the direct side. Just pay attention to the heat and your sauce and you'll be fine. Give the sauce a good stir now and then while tasting it for flavor and heat.

After two hours the pork and beans should be done. The beer prevents the sauce from becoming too thick so you should have a nice, balanced ,consistent sauce. It shouldn't be watery like a broth. The steaks won't be cooked down like pulled pork but should be tender and easy to cut with a knife.

Served with cole slaw (sorry, not homemade....) and cold beer, this backyard BBQ dish was certainly rewarding. The pork and beans were extremely tender and tasty. My sauce had some sweet flavors in it which paired well with the vinegary cole slaw. The aroma was classic barbeque.

Of course, any choice of beer is recommended. I went the cheap route with Miller High Life Light. Lately, I have been drinking costly Microbrew beers so the "champagne of beers" quenched my thirst just fine.

BBQ Pork & Beans is an easy, classic backyard entree to cook and prepare. You just need some time in the day for slow-and-low cooking.