Pork-Ginger Potstickers with Fire Sauce

Homemade Potstickers take some effort to prepare, but the flavor and texture are superior to anything I've ever had at a restaurant, and a lot cheaper too.  The advantage to homemade is in the texture: ground pork with little nuggets of ginger, garlic, and water chestnuts wrapped in a bite-sized won-ton with a salty/spicy dipping sauce create a flavorgasm of deliciousness.

When selecting a mixing bowl, I stand by my rule that you should always grab one size bigger than you think you need.  Remember to cook the pork until crumbly, drain the grease, and allow it to cool before you add it to the mix.  You can use a big spoon to stir, but I prefer to use my hands for that task.

Wrapping the potstickers is the time-consuming part of the preparation.  Kate can usually crank out about 60 in an hour.  We prefer the square won ton wrappers, but the round ones would work just as well.  Make sure to try and squeeze out all the air when you fold the wrapper over the filling.

The Fire Sauce is just a simple mix of three ingredients: Soy Sauce, White Vinegar, and Mongolian Fire Oil. It will separate if it sits too long, so give it a vigorous stir before you eat.

Before you start cooking, preheat the skillet over medium-high.  Add a dollop of oil and as many potstickers as will fit without touching, and let them brown for 2-3 minutes.  I like to use a metal spatula to gently separate them from the pan before I add the water to steam.

When you think they are ready, pour in the water and immediately cover the pan.  Wait until very little steam is still escaping (about 2 minutes), then remove the lid and remove the potstickers.  Kate and I like to eat them as they cook, but you could prepare them all before serving.

Pork Nuggets with Mojo Glaze

We were feeling ambitious tonight when we decided to make this.  It took nearly an hour before the food hit the table, so we've classified this as "weekend only".  That said, it's a fun riff on chicken nuggets, with the Mojo Glaze giving a tangy flair to the breaded pork.

If you decide to do the Maple-Jalapeno Sweet Potato as a side, be sure to get them in the oven before you get to work on the Pork.

The breading in this dish doesn't have too much flavor, so be sure to really season the meat first.  The only other trick is to crush the corn flakes in a plastic bag until they are almost completely crumbled.  This will help to ensure a complete coating when you bread the meat.

Anytime you are going to cook meat, it's important to make sure that everything is completely thawed before you begin; otherwise your meat will have a tendency to undercook in the middle and overcook on the outside.  Our pork was a little too pink for my taste when we first pulled it from the oven, so we dropped the temperature by 50 degrees and put it back in for another 3 minutes.


The Mojo Sauce is a simple creation, but full of flavor.  It's similar to an asian sweet-and-sour sauce, but a little less thick and sweet.  Be careful any time you heat a sugar on the stove.  The contents of the pan can reach a temperature exceeding that of boiling water, and the stuff is sticky, so it can leave a nasty burn if it gets on your skin.  It'll be cool enough to eat once you spoon it over the Pork.

Bacon Saves Lives

From the article:

Cured salted pork crafted as a nasal tampon and packed within the nasal vaults successfully stopped nasal hemorrhage promptly, effectively, and without sequelae … To our knowledge, this represents the first description of nasal packing with strips of cured pork for treatment of life-threatening hemorrhage in a patient with Glanzmann thrombasthenia.

Is there anything that bacon can't do?

Pork Scaloppine with Mom's Coleslaw

Thin meat, breaded like this, is one of our favorites. And you can't go wrong with my mother's coleslaw. The scaloppine takes a little effort to prepare, but the crunchy/juicy combination of breaded pork with lemon-butter sauce is worth a little extra time and mess in the kitchen.

Making coleslaw is incredibly easy. There are only two secrets: cut the cabbage as thin as you can, and no matter what size bowl you grab, you'll wish you had grabbed a bigger one. When you add the salt and pepper, remember that moderation is the enemy of flavor. Toss everything thoroughly between (frequent) tastings, and you can't go wrong.

The sauce is fairly straight-forward to make. Be sure to really whisk and cook the flour before you continue to the next step. You only need to stir it occasionally after you've added the other ingredients. You'll know it's ready when it has a nice sheen and a tart lemon flavor. Reduce heat to low and give it a final stir when you're ready to plate.

When it comes to pounding meat, I learned everything I know from Alton Brown on Good Eats. A ziplock bag and a bit of water makes this an easy and tidy task. Slosh a bit of water in the bag and pour it out, then add the meat a piece at a time. Press the air out of the bag and lightly hammer it with your mallet until you're happy with the thickness. Gently remove the meat and repeat.

Normally when you bread meat you start with a coat of flour. In the interest of making this dish (slightly) healthy, we've omitted that step. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure that I can taste a difference. Some recipes season the egg bath or the bread mixture with salt and pepper, but it always seems like the flavor gets lost when I do that, so make sure you season the meat before you begin.

With the above set-up, I use my left hand to grab a cutlet, dip it in the egg bath, and drop it into the bread crumbs. Then I use my right hand to scoop some crumbs on top of the meat, give it a good pat and gently shake loose the extra crumbs before I arranged it on the pan. This method helps me to avoid the "club hand". Do it differently and you'll see what I mean.

Using the broiler instead of sauteing the cutlets in butter is faster, cleaner, and a bit healthier. I still prefer the flavor of the full-fat method, but Kate and I agreed that this was a fantastic dish.

Sweet and Spicy Sausage

Spicy and Sweet Sausage

The gang came over yesterday for our inaugural sausage making party.  It took about five hours until we had something ready to eat, but I'm sure we'll be faster next time.  We spent a lot of time figuring each step out.  The final result was tasty, and we learned a lot of lessons along the way.

Sweet Mix

Spicy Mix

We chilled the Sausage Mixes overnight, then popped them into freezer about thirty minutes before grinding. It took some planning to make sure that everything stayed cold throughout the process.

Rooney and Jeff grinding meat

We set the meat grinder up on the counter next to the sink, and put the mixing bowl in an ice-water bath beneath it.

Sausage Meat after Mixing

We ground the meat in batches, then moved the mixing bowl to the stand mixer with the paddle attachment.  It only took a few minutes on medium-low speed to incorporate the liquid into the mix, creating a sticky mixture known as the "Primary Bind".  We put each batch into a large bowl that we kept in the refrigerator.

Testing the mix

After the first batch, we cooked a spoonful to see if the seasoning was right.

Rinsing the Casing

We soaked the casings overnight, changing the water a few times along the way.  They're pretty slippery, but rinsing them out wasn't nearly as unpleasant as I thought it would be.

Mounting the Casing

Ready to stuff

Feeding the Casing over the medium stuffing attachment only took a minute.  The trick is to use one hand to guide and the other to scrunch it on.  I left about 4" hanging from the end before we started stuffing.  Once the meat was at the end of the tube we stopped the machine, squeezed the air out of the end and tied a knot in the casing.

Tyson, Brady and Jeff

Tyson, Brady and Rooney

Stuffing was a three man job.  One person loaded the tray on top of the machine, one person fed the mixture into the machine, and one person managed the casing as the meat was extruded.

Stuffing Sausage

I think that you're supposed to stuff the meat in one continuous roll, then twist the links, but we twisted along the way.  The trick is to pinch the casing after each odd sausage link, then twist the sausage after each even link.  Doing it this way ensures that you don't accidentally untwist a link that you've already made.

After all that work, we sat down to a great meal.  The texture wasn't quite as good as store bought, but I think that's because we rushed the stuffing process.  We'll get that right the next time.  We had so much fun that we made plans to do it again in April.

Sweet and Spicy Sausage Mixes

Pork Shoulder

We spent the evening getting ready to make some sausage tomorrow.  I knew it would take a while to prepare 20+ lbs of Pork Shoulder, but I didn't think it would take four hours.  Oh well, should be worth it tomorrow.  Trimming all the fat, gristle and bone from three of these suckers was some work!

Pork Bone

I understood from books that I've read that the pork shoulder bone was going to be difficult to carve around, but I really had no idea how many nooks and crannies that thing had.  Domestic reality met culinary theory today.

Sausage Spices

You'll notice that the spices are measured in grams, not teaspoons/tablespoons.  Michael Ruhlman, the author of the recipes, is adamant that the spice mixtures be measured by weight, not volume.  Since this is our first attempt, we decided to not take any chances and did it his way.  The top two bowls above are for the spicy mixture, and the bottom bowl is the sweet mixture.

We have two large buckets of seasoned pork meat in our fridge, along with the sausage casings and some chuck we're going to grind into hamburger meat tomorrow as well.  Should be fun!

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

This has been one of my favorite pasta dishes for years.  I know that classically speaking, you're supposed to use Pancetta instead of bacon, but how can I say no to bacon?  This has lots of great flavor, and it's fast and cheap to make.

Uncooked Sauce

It's important that the sauce is mixed and ready before the pasta is strained.  The residual heat in the pot and pasta are the only thing that cook the egg, so you want to ready to move quickly when the pasta is strained.

Bread Crumb Mixture

We were in a hurry tonight, so we didn't toast the bread crumbs like the recipe suggests.  We did use the Buddha Hand though, which makes the mixture even tastier. A little of this goes a long way, but bring the bowl to the table to allow people to add more if they like.

Pork Fat

4.5 lbs of Pork Fat

A new friend hooked me up with this Pork Fat for free.  Most of it will be used when we make sausage this weekend, but I haven't decided what to do with the leftovers...