Apple Pie, Patis, and Pâté

Dongpo Pork is a minimalist recipe for braised pork belly that needs only a few Chinese pantry staples — ginger, scallions, soy sauce, and Shaoxing rice wine. Ever ordered anything “drunken” at your local Chinese restaurant? Odds are you’ve had Shaoxing. It is the most widely used rice wine in Chinese cookery so invest in a good quality bottle if you plan to fire up the wok often.

Hangzhou braised pork belly shamelessly celebrates fat as the main ingredient. There is no browning or searing in this version, a step usually called for when braising meats, presumably to prevent the fat and skin from taking on any texture other than gelatinous. As the meat simmers underneath the ebony liquid to produce a rich broth, the fat on top steams into wobbly silkiness that is neither solid nor liquid.

I realize that wasn’t the most appetizing description for something you’re supposed to put in your mouth. This is one of those “try it, you’ll like it” recipes.

It takes at least 4 hours to get the best results when making Dongpo Pork. Throw the ingredients in a pot, run errands, do laundry, work out, and come home to a kitchen redolent of ginger and soy sauce. It’s done when the fat, skin, and meat are easily pierced with blunt chopsticks.

View Braised Pork Belly - Hangzhou Dongpo Pork recipe »

In this, our next installment of watch the Filipino cook and bake things he can’t even pronounce, we visit the province of Friesland in the Netherlands, home of fine cows, gallant horses, and the regional specialty bread called sûkerbôlle. Based on an old Frisian cookbook, this sugar bread loaf is lightly scented with cinnamon and ginger. The crunchy bits of half-melted pearl sugar embedded in the impossibly fluffy interior make sûkerbôlle surprisingly addictive.

Dutch cheeses, pannenkoeken, and a few treats by way of Indonesia define my limited knowledge of foods from the Netherlands. My introduction to the Dutch baking traditions through sûkerbôlle left a decidedly positive impression and I hope to learn more about it.

View Sûkerbôlle / Suikerbrood - Frisian Sugar Bread recipe »

If you have a nagging need to apply heat to apples before enjoying it, try steaming for a change. Cooking and baking cultivars such as Granny Smith Apples can be steamed with good results, changing its distinctive crispness into a spoonable consistency. Steaming also intensifies the flavor of apples while retaining much of its fresh taste, and more importantly, its nutrients. There has to be some truth to that old saying, right?

Sweet red bean paste complements the tartness of Granny Smiths in this traditional Shanghai recipe for stuffed and steamed apples. Unlike steamed peaches with honey dates, in which the ingredients combine into a syrupy whole, the apples and red bean paste stay separate because of the firmer fruit. Enjoy the apples with a bit of the sweet filling in each spoonful.

View Apples Steamed with Red Bean Paste recipe »

This light Korean snack highlights the chewiness and natural sweetness of sweet rice flour. Boiled until floating, sweet rice balls are really easy to prepare and has endless variations. Dry coatings such as sesame seeds, roasted soybean powder, and cinnamon sugar cling readily to its surface. Gyung dan can also be stuffed with sweet fillings such as red bean paste, as demonstrated in this excellent video by Maangchi.

Plain uncoated rice balls are also extensively used in several sweet and savory applications from all over Asia. My preference by way of heritage is a warm bowl of Filipino ginataan, rice balls and fruits cooked in sweetened coconut milk.

View Gyung Dan - Korean Sweet Rice Balls recipe »

Pane Francese is the bastard lovechild of the baguette and the ciabatta, melding the best qualities of each iconic bread into rustic loaves. Shaped into long sticks like its French archetype, the crust-to-crumb ratio is maximized, making it a great accompaniment to rich soups and stews. The high hydration characteristic of the ciabatta, at 76% for all you bread nerds, gives pane Francese an airy crumb and irregular holes even with the addition of whole wheat flour.

While the pane Francese procedure of cutting dough into strips and stretching is less fussy than shaping traditional baguettes, the wet dough presents its own set of problems with handling and gluten development. Dough strength is achieved through a long fermentation time interspersed with stretching and folding, arguably the best technique to use for developing slack dough. Use small amounts of flour when stretching the dough on a counter, or better yet, watch Susan of Wild Yeast Blog do the same thing with less mess in a rectangular container.

View Pane Francese - The Italian take on French Bread recipe »