Pulled Pork Sandwich

I’ve heard tales of the slow cooker and its powers.

I’ve heard of its ability to yield a mean, tough cut of meat into the most tender, and most delicate.

I was drawn and i was curious.

I needed that kind of capacity in my life.

I went to the store and i bought.

A slow cooker and myself. Together, we are ready to embark on some adventure.

We started our journey with this coca cola pulled pork recipe.

With just three ingredients (pork, coke and bbq sauce), this recipe seemed befitting for a couple of greenhorns.

I’ve chosen pork shoulder for our first experiment.

Pork shoulder is a relatively cheap cut which usually require lengthened cooking time.

And when i say “lengthened”, i mean ALL night long. Literally.  All 8 hours of cooking.

Patience will really come in handy.

But it will reward too.

Because my pulled pork was not only fork tender, but it was also flavourfully delicious.

And i do think i have a new best friend.

Rejoice Oven and Stove, lets welcome Slow Cooker into the family.

Slow Cooker Cola Barbeque Pulled Beef Or Pork

• 3 lb. beef or pork roast
• 1 can Coca cola ( NOT DIET! )
• 1 – 16 oz. bottle of your favorite barbeque sauce
• • Trim fat off roast and place in appropriate sized slow cooker. Pour cola over the roast. Cover and cook on low 6 – 8 hours or until meat falls apart easily.
  • Remove roast from cooker and shred. In a colander set over a large bowl, drain juices from slow cooker and reserve.
  • Return meat to slow cooker and stir in barbeque sauce. Thin with some of the reserved juices (don’t throw them out yet!). Cook for another 1/2 to 1 hour on low or until heated through. Thin with additional juices, if necessary. I like to have the sauce just slightly thin, so some of the sauce soaks into the buns, but not so thin that they get soggy.
  • To serve, place a good amount of the meat mixture onto the bottom half of a bunand top with the other bun half. Serve with homemade french fries (I did!)

 

 

Oreo and Cherries on a Birthday Cake

With just a few moments to spare, we sat in front of the TV, enjoying our last minutes of freedom.

Soon enough, we’ll need to drive to our respective work places where the happy animated figures on the TV will be replaced by some sad sad lifeless figures on the computer screen.

“It’s my sister’s birthday today” he casually said.

“Whaaaaa…” I protested.

You see, over the years, it has been customary for me to bake birthday cakes for the various family members. It seemed i was about to break this tradition with such a late notice.

“Well, shouldn’t we at least have dinner to celebrate? ”  I continued,

“No we cant, we have dinner with David tonight.”

“….Whaaaa?.. Who is David?!?!!”

You can probably sense that i was growing indignant at how little i was informed on “current affairs”.

“David is a friend who stopped by from Singapore for a visit.” He continued. “You could maybe bake my sister a cake. We’ll have dinner together tomorrow… Anyways, I’m late”.

The door slammed.

So between work, and dinner with “David”, I didnt really have the time to shop for baking and decorative ingredients.

I furiously yanked open the kitchen cabinets.

A stale box of rice krispies, a box of Saltine, and two rolls of Oreo.

I went to the fridge, hoping I had some fresh fruits but all i had was a half bitten, dry starfruit with the unmistakable teeth marks on it.

I didn’t have time to go through the drawers in the fridge, but i was almost certain i had maraschino cherries hidden within its depths.

I put on my shoes, thinking hard. I gotta pull this off somehow.

And i think  sorta did.

Well, it’s not exactly the best looking cake on earth.

But at least, the tradition wasn’t broken.

Everyone enjoyed the cake, and my faith in having at least two rolls of oreos in the house at any point in time was restored.

Happy Birthday Dear Sis-In-Law!

 

Buttermilk Fried Chicken and Chicken Sausage and Potatoes Roast

I kept plucking at the crispy bits on these chicken

And with each bite, it was like fireworks in my mouth. Salty, spicy, herby, peppery.  All at the same time. I kept picking at it, till my chicken was pretty much bald.

I looked at the other chicken pieces, and wondered if i should work on a second piece.

I practiced restraint and kept my fingers on my now bald chicken. I was glad i did. Because i was about to get on to the meat.

The meat.

The meat that had been soaked in buttermilk overnight.

The meat that was juicy and tender.

I am not an expert on the topic, but from what i read, soaking meat in buttermilk would help tenderize the meat while flavouring them at the same time.

While i can’t really vouch for the flavouring part, i can totally affirm on the tenderizing. But then again, my tastebuds was probably desensitized from all that flavour burst from the crunchy flour. Judging flavor on the chicken meat would be totally inaccurate

Nevertheless, since all your attention would be sucked to the frying station for these chicken, i thought this chicken sausage and potatoes roast would be the perfect accompaniment.

This dish is really easy to put together.

All you had to do is toss cubed potatoes, sausages, oil, rosemary, salt and pepper together and pop them into the oven, then tend back to your fried chicken.

Roasting this will cause the skin on the potatoes to dry while the insides remain moist. The same goes for the potatoes. Succulent on the insides, crisp on the outside.

Okay now, I shall leave you guys with these double chicken post. I hope you guys enjoyed it!

Pioneer Woman’s Buttermilk Fried Chicken

recipe from The Pioneer Woman Cookbook: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl by Ree Drummond

Note:I took it from Steamy Kitchen

serves 6-8 hungry ranch hands (halve recipe if you you’re feedin’ normal city folk)

2 cut-up fryer chickens
1 quart plus 1/4 cup buttermilk
5 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons seasoned salt (like Lawry’s)
2 teaspoons black pepper
2 teaspoons dried thyme
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 cup milk
canola or vegetable oil for frying

1. In a large bowl (or 2 freezer bags) add the chicken with 1 quart buttermilk. Refrigerate overnight. When ready to fry, remove chicken from bowl and let sit on counter for 30 minutes to take chill off.

2. Preheat oven to 350F. Stir together the flour, seasoned salt, pepper, thyme, paprika and cayenne in a very large bowl. In a small bowl combine the 1/4 cup buttermilk and the milk. Pour the milk mixture into the flour and use a fork to mix until little lumps throughout.

3. Heat 1 1/2 inches of oil in a deep skillet or dutch oven over medium high heat to 365F. Working in batches, thoroughly coat each buttermilk-soaked chicken piece with the breading, pressing to adhere the breading. Add the chicken to the oil 3-4 pieces at a time. Cover pan and fry 5-7 minutes, checking to make sure chicken isn’t getting too brown. Turn, cover and cook additional 3-5 minutes more. Monitor temperature of oil to make sure chicken doesn’t burn. Keep in mind chicken will finish cooking in oven.

4. Place chicken on baking sheet and continue frying rest of chicken. When done, bake the chicken for 10-15 minutes, until chicken cooked through.

Roasted Chicken Sausage and Potatoes

Taken from Martha Stewart

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds smoked chicken sausage
• 1 1/2 pounds small white potatoes, halved
• 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Coarse salt and ground pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Pierce sausage all over with a fork; place on a rimmed baking sheet with potatoes and rosemary. Drizzle all with oil; season generously with salt and pepper. Toss to coat, and spread in an even layer.
2. Roast, tossing occasionally, until sausage is browned and potatoes are tender, 30 to 35 minutes. If desired, halve sausages crosswise before serving.

Oyako Don

I can’t think of anything more comforting for breakfast than a bowl of hot rice with with slurry half cooked eggs and chicken pieces.

Known as Oyako don, this Japanese dish literally translates to “parent and child” don. Though i knew the translation behind the Japanese name. It took google and wikipedia to point it out to me why it might be named such.

The reason is pretty obvious actually. Chicken and egg = parent and child. Chicken being the parent, egg being the child.Geez, that was pretty obvious!

I really loved slurping the softly cooked eggs, and the chicken gave some bulk  to the Japanese rice dish.

But of course, the highlight of this dish is the sweet yet savoury sauce in this dish. This is the sauce in which the chicken, eggs, and some onions are stewed in.

It is also the sauce that the rice soaks up as the stew got ladled over it. And if you can’t really picture it, think of gravy and mashed potatoes.

Oyako Don
Taken from Momofokufor2

Chicken Katsu-Oyakodon Recipe

Yield: 2 servings

2 cups of cooked white rice

4 chicken drumsticks, de-boned and cut into bite-sized chunks (see below)
2 tablespoons flour*
salt and pepper*
1 egg, lightly beaten*
1 cup panko*
oil for pan-frying*

1/2 cup dashi
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoon mirin
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon oil
3 eggs, lightly beaten

sliced green onions for garnish

1. Set up a breading station and break the chunks of chicken by dipping in flour, shaking off excess, dipping in egg, and then in panko. Continue until all chicken is breaded.
2. Heat up oil to 375˚F in a frying pan. Shallow fry chicken in batches until golden brown and cooked. To check, cut a piece of chicken in half. Drain on paper towels and set aside while you cook your onions and eggs.
3. Heat a teaspoon of oil in a sauce pan on medium-high heat. Add the onions and pan-fry until cooked and soft, but not brown. Add the dashi, soy sauce, and mirin and turn the heat to high. When the mirin mixture comes to a boil, add the eggs and turn the heat off and cover the pan so the eggs cook in the residual heat for about 3-4 minutes.
4. Fill rice bowls and place chicken katsu on top. Scoop soft omelette and dashi broth onto the chicken and rice. Garnish with green onions. Enjoy!

*Note: I didnt katsu my chicken. Instead i just slid after pan frying the onions and simmer it in the sauces.

 

 

Blackberry Japanese Cheesecake

After making the Brownie Swirl Cheesecake, i had just under half a cup of cream cheese left in my fridge.
91 grams to be exact.It was pretty unnerving and I was really really itching to rid of it, but there aren’t many recipes that call for such a scant amount of cream cheese.

Then I remember the Japanese Cheesecake.

Unlike the western cheesecake, the Japanese cheesecake usually involve minimal amount of cream cheese. In fact, from the way it was made, and from its light and fluffy texture, this cake is closer to a chiffon cake rather than a cheesecake.

The Japanese cheesecake is usually subtly sweet, and rely on some kind of sweet jam for it sweetness.

I’ve used blackberry jam on this.

U can of course use other jams, (strawberry jams being most common).

Oh, you do want to be gentle when slicing into this cake. I really suggest in using a sawing motion with a serrated knife. Yes, this cake is THAT soft and delicate.

Japanese Cheesecake

I took the recipe from an Indonesian cookbook (50 Resep Cheesecake Variatif)

100 gr cream cheese (i only used 91 grams)

25 gr unsalted butter

50 gr heavy cream

1/2 tsp lemon zest

1/2 tsp juice of a lemon

40 gr cake flour

50 gr egg yolk

100 gr egg whites

1/8 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

50 gr sugar

Directions:

1. double boil cream cheese till it is soft, smooth and not lumpy. Add the butter and heavy cream. Mix well.Add the lemon zest and lemon juice.

2. Sift flour into the cream cheese mixture. Mix till combined. Add egg yolks gradually. Set aside

3. With an electric mixer, whisk egg whites with salt, cream of tartar. Gradually add the sugar, and beat till peaks form.

4. Fold in egg whites mixture to cream cheese mixture.

5. Pour into a baking tin ( my pan was 18cm x 18 cm x7). Put the baking tin into a larger tin and spoon in about 2 TBS of water into the larger tin to create a water bath.

6. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 for 50 minutes or till cooked