Guest Post - You Gotta Luv the Pulled Pork

Introduction by Extra Virgin Chef: Today's post is an unusual one. In the blogosphere, it's known as a Guest Post, where you invite a fellow food blogger to post a recipe on your blog. I got to know Quay Po recently and, charmed by her warmth and sincerity, I decided it would be fun to work on this little assignment with her. I got excited on hearing that she would share about Pulled Pork, a dish I had learned at the Social Enterprise, but now I would learn about it from someone who had tasted it where it originated. Check out the recipe she concocted below and do leave a nice comment if you like it. 


For readers popping over from QPC, a warm welcome! If you're new to this site, check out the Author and her First Anniversary Blog.

Quay Po Writes:
When my blogger friends ask me to do a guest post for them, I am always delighted to do so.  It is a nice feeling to know that you are regarded as a friend and they trust your presence in their space. 


When my Quay Lo (husband) and I returned to the US three years ago for our family reunion, we had lunch in a little café in his hometown that was unforgettable. The dish that stood out was called Pulled Pork. I have been searching for a good recipe to replicate that particular  pulled pork  I had. The meat was extremely flavorful and just melted in my mouth. I could not find one that I thought would yield the same taste that I remember based on the ingredients used. Finally, I thought I would create my own recipe and BINGO!! I nailed the taste as well as the texture and I was SO happy. So here it is, my pulled pork recipe, which I am going to share with you here in Extra Virgin Chef as a guest post.


This is a versatile item to have around. So, make a big batch and deep freeze the balance. On days that you just want a simple but satisfying and hearty lunch or dinner, you can use it to make a scrumptious sandwich or a burger. 

Recipe

 Ingredients:

1 cup garlic spice rub (see recipe below)

1 (2 lbs) boneless pork shoulder 

2 cans of beer

2 Tbsp duck fat

Ingredient for spice rub:

1 head roasted minced garlic

1 Tbsp sea salt

1 Tbsp ground coriander

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp chopped thyme

1 tsp chopped rosemary

1 tbs lemon zest

1 tsp ground black pepper



Combine well all ingredients in a food processor or by hand.

Method:

Preheat oven to 150 degrees C.
Spread garlic spice rub all over pork. Let it marinate for 1 hour.
Heat duck fat in dutch oven. Sear the pork shoulder till all sides are browned.
Remove pork shoulder and add beer. When the beer is boiling, return the pork shoulder into the dutch oven.
Put the dutch oven in the oven and let the meat braise for 4 hours. Turn the meat after 2 hours.
Transfer braised pork to cutting board and let stand for 15 minutes.  Shred the meat and serve with your favourite steamed or roasted vegetables.

Ratatouille - rat food never tasted or looked this good

I learned to make Ratatouille at the social enterprise, and wrote about it as one of my Word of the Week some time back. In the restaurant, we made them by tens of kilos at one go. But a few days ago, I was inspired by Wendy, a very talented cook and food blogger, who posted the most beautiful ratatouille dish I've seen. You really should check out her blog here. Caution: her food pics are stunning and will make you drool shamelessly. Wendy could open a restaurant and have long lines outside her door anytime but she has chosen a higher calling to cook only for her family and friends. 

An opportunity popped up today as I was going to have lunch with my girlfriends, one of whom makes it a habit to eat only vegetables every Thursday. We decided on an impromptu picnic at the park and I thought a ratatouille would be perfect for this occasion.

Again, it's one of those you-cant-go-wrong recipes - one green zucchini, one yellow zucchini, one eggplant, a couple of roma tomatotes, a few sprigs of thyme, EVOO, sea salt, black pepper. I used so little salt in this dish that I was afraid it might taste bland, but it actually turned out super yummilicious! Just be sure to use fresh and good quality ingredients. That bottle of EVOO that you think is too expensive is actually worth it!

I made my own sauce but you can get ready-made ones from the stores and they are perfectly fine. I checked Ragu and Barilla - these 2 brands have no chemicals or preservatives, just pure vegetables. All you need to do is heat them to a simmer, then place them at the bottom of a baking dish.

Slice the vegetables in equal thickness, mix with salt, pepper and EVOO, saute each type of vegetables separately, then place them on top of the sauce and bake in the oven at 180C for 20 minutes.

I added a few sprigs of thyme before baking, and was rewarded for this small bit of effort with an awesome aroma later.

A dear sister-in-Christ

I got some store-bought egg crepes meant for desserts but this thickness, or should I say, thinness, was perfect for my soft gooey ratatouille.

Good friends + good food + in a park + 25 degrees C + no crowd = Awesome with a capital A. A great day in the office.

BBQ Pork Ribs

I saw the chefs make this at the social enterprise I volunteered at. This is a monkey-see-monkey-do dish, together with the home-made BBQ sauce. I was happy with it overall. It's finger-licking good and sticky to the lips. And I didn't overcook it! Plus there were family members who came back for a second helping (bless their hearts and appetites).

The butcher convinced me that this slab of pork rib weighing 1.6 kg is perfect for my roast. It cost me S$28, and the butcher and his wife looked too happy too long. He made deep lashes in between the ribs   - all the better for the flavours to penetrate, he muttered.

I decided I would boil it for 10-15 minutes so as to minimise the time in the oven and prevent overcooking. 

Then I glazed it with the BBQ sauce I made while it was boiling, double wrapped it in aluminium foil and popped into a preheated oven at 200C.

This was what greeted me after 50 minutes, plus the caramelized sauce filled the air in the kitchen. I inserted my meat thermometer, and yanked the baby out of the oven when it read 70C, a safe temperature for pork.

I didn't get meat that fell off the bones, but it was moist and juicy and very flavorful. I considered if putting it back for another few minutes might get me to Uto-pork-pia but decided that I didn't want to risk a dry rib.

Recipe for sauce for BBQ Pork Rib 1.6 kg

Whatever herbs or spices you want to clear from your cabinet! 

Or you can try the following like I did.

Tomato Sauce 2 TBSP (I used tomato ketchup)

Apple Cider Vinegar 2 Tbsp

Kicap Manis 2 Tbsp (I used dark soya sauce)

LP Sauce 2 Tbsp (I used Worchester sauce)

Brown Sugar 2 Tbsp

Honey 2 Tbsp

Garlic Powder 1 tsp (I used chopped garlic 2 tsp)

Onion Powder 1 tsp (I didn't use)

Chilli Flakes, to taste (I used 2 Tbsp chilli powder)

Cinnamon Stick, one

White Pepper

Black Pepper

Water as needed

Did you notice there's no salt in this recipe?

This is the consistency you want to achieve in your BBQ sauce - thanks to a chef at-Sunrice who taught me this.  

Method

1. Make deep lashes in between each pork rib without cutting through.

2. Boil in salted water for 15 minutes

3. Meanwhile, make BBQ sauce as per recipe and add whatever is about to expire in your cabinet

4. Remove ribs from water, discard water, pat dry the meat

5. Lay aluminium foil in a roast pan.

6. Place rib, fat side down, in the roast pan and glaze with the sauce. 

7. Cover fully and tightly and place in a preheated oven at 200C for about 50 minutes. 

8. Check after 30 minutes and you can add another layer of glaze if preferred.

9. In the last 10 minutes, open the aluminium foil to expose the meat directly to the heat in the oven.

10. Watch carefully so meat does not overcook and become dry. 

11. Remove and rest for 10 minutes before cutting.

12. Slice and serve individual ribs. Enjoy this finger-licking good cut. 

How to cut without getting cut, anyone?

Roasted tomatoes with sea salt, black pepper and sprigs of fresh thyme.
Snapped in the restaurant kitchen with an iPhone.

OK, here's a confession. The more I use the knife, the more fearful I am of it. Too many horror stories seen and heard, and a few near-misses of my own have kept me pretty much on my toes. When I hold a knife in my hands, it has my full attention and I don't allow myself to get distracted. I will also not allow anyone in the commercial kitchen to rush me. The customer can always wait, but I want to leave this place with my ten fingers intact. There is no one I want to impress with my (lack of) knife skills so I'm quite happy to be perceived as the snail in the kitchen. 

This is how much tomatoes I cut today with Chef giving me several tips and guidance for which I am so grateful. An Extra Virgin Chef needs all the help she can get!

Cooking for the Crew

I served "Chinese salsa" to my Mexican cook!

I have now volunteered about 2 months of my time at the social enterprise and am learning heaps. Just spending hours each day with cooks from all woks of life is in itself a learning journey. Today, the Executive Chef decides that I should do the staff meal. That means cooking for 20 chefs and service crew by noon time with a limited budget and based on ingredients I can get my hands on in the chiller. All by myself. *Gulp* Help me, God!

I was a little flustered just thinking about it. So many recipes flooded my mind but I had to quickly eliminate each one for a variety of reasons. I had to work within the constraints of time, budget as well as what I think the crew normally like. Heavy on carbo to fill their big stomachs and simple Chinese stir-fries to meet the budget. Definitely not my thing! Neither for consumption nor for practice. But I had 20 mouths to feed by noon and I needed to stay focused on the task at hand. 

I decided to make a "short-cut" Hainanese chicken rice. I learned later, what I call "short-cut", the Executive Chef called "Western technique". Let me walk you through what I did. 

1. On a big pot with some hot oil, I fry some minced shallots. Everything becomes more difficult when you cook for mass. I almost burnt the shallots at the side of the pot!

2. Next, I added 2 big heaps of rice and chicken stock. The amount of stock I used is as if I was cooking the rice on a rice cooker.

3. I crushed some garlic and scatter them around the rice. 

4. At the same time, I lay out 10 boneless chicken legs marinated earlier in Chinese sesame oil, soy sauce, salt and pepper. Place them all on top of the rice in one layer, skin on. 

5. Cover the pot and let the rice cook. The animal fat from the bird will melt onto the rice giving it flavour and fragrance. According to Chef, this is a Western cooking technique. He challenged me to think of what other spices or herbs I could add to the pot at this stage. Hmm...didn't think of that. I decided on a few bay leaves and 2 cinnamon sticks. Great suggestion from him!

6. About half an hour later, the chicken is cooked through. I removed them, fluffed up the rice and at the suggestion of the pastry chef (yes, by now, everyone is involved!), I bruised and threw in some pandan leaves (screwpine leaves) for added aroma. 

Chef shot me a few questions: Are you happy with the smell? Is the texture what I'm seeking? Think also of the colours on the table later. What effect do you want to draw from the diner? Huh? It's just a staff meal? No? He forced me to think about the quality of my work and to learn to adjust and improvise as I go along.

I learned to cut up the legs in even pieces and he made me think about the garnishing. We also did an ala-minute julienned ginger with hot smoking oil poured over it and used it as a glaze over the nicely poached chicken. Great on-the-spot thinking and creative improvisation. Intellectually stimulating for me!

I had to do a veggie dish as well and was not enthusiastic about stir-fries - they are such a yawn to me. But Chef made the experience very different. He made me think hard about what effect I want the eater to experience in the mouth. C'mon, Chef, it's just a plain, old stir-fry! Or is it?! This is sliced cabbage with sauteed capsicum. He instructed me to continue stirring while he drizzled a long thin line of beaten eggs. Immediately, the pan came alive for me as the colour changed from a pale yellow to a tinge of golden orange. It was the way he drizzled the egg in that caught my undivided attention. Small act, big impact. 

I finished it off with diced tomatoes (seeds and pulp removed), diced cucumber (seeds removed), marinated in Chinese dressing of sesame oil, soy sauce and a dash of salt, topped with sweet pineapples. Chinese salsa, as I say. I served this to a cook in the kitchen who is from Mexico. He said he loved it, LOL!

What an experience cooking this staff meal. I got a couple of positive and encouraging feedback. Phew. I will get another chance again next week. Stressful! But good stress and a great learning experience. Better than any cooking lessons out there.

*all iphotos so please excuse the quality!

I had John Denver with me in the kitchen today

Alone in my thoughts as I cut onions and sauté mushrooms today, I whipped this up in my head. It was good personal entertainment amidst menial tasks and brainless work. 


Sung to the tune of "Leaving on a Jet Plane"


The pace is fast, the tension is high
I'm standin' here doing mise en place
Finger burns and small cuts are daily norm


But the pots and pans, they're heavy for me
Sous chef is yelling', he's blowin' his top
Already I'm so stinky I could die


So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you like my food
Eat it like you've not eaten before
Cause I'm a-cookin' in a restaurant
Don't know what I am doing here
O baby, I love to learn

Bringing you ishots from the restaurant, kitchen and pastry today

You get this if you order the baked seafood rice.

I'm making the Kaffir Lime Mayo...
 in case you choose this for your burger, remember I sweat blood and tears to bring this to you.
I tasted the BBQ sauce - if smoky-oaky is your kind of thing, go for this.

They put this up today on the wall. My locker room is close-by behind this wall. 

Remember people like me working real hard behind these walls so you can enjoy every bite.

The restaurant aims to build a community for families to hang out at its place over good food.

Tells the venue as well, this one.

I honestly hope you will like the food when you get to it.

And the pastry spying and spotting continues...

Speed-cooking in 8 hours

A new ingredient that caught my eye.

Another interesting day spent in the kitchen today on what feels like speed-cooking lessons. Every half an hour or so, the chef calls out, Come over, everybody! and gives a quick demo on a particular dish on the menu. We are all assigned our tasting spoons that we stuff into our apron pockets and whip it up every now and then to taste the different foods. We tried tomato paste, bolognaise, minestrone, baked seafood rice, burger patty, calamari, mushroom soup, and many more. The pace is hectic, everyone seems to be in everyone's way, and tension is high. All that without customers yet! 

A completely different environment from the culinary school kitchen which now seems so unreal. It was comfortable, peaceful and quiet back there, and there was always room and time for good photography. Now, either I don't have the time, the energy, the space, or my hands are full. Still, I managed a few shots with the iPhone today to share with you. Apologies for bad photography.

Pilaf rice - sautée garlic with butter, add bay leaves, then onions, then small diced celery and carrots,
add rice grains and sauté further, then pop into the combi oven to steam. I think! It was all too quick and rushed and I had to get back to my own station to do my stuff. Tasted rather buttery to me.

Popped my head in the pastry department every now and then.

Wish I could make these. Must try to get my hands on the recipe!

Someone got injured...

.. And so did I again today.

At 11am, we were told to stop all work as the directors of the company were going to give a speech. I thought, What fun to hear "management speak" from this side of the fence now. I sat down together with my chefs and 20 questions in my head.  It opened with a "We understand your pains" empathy line, followed quickly by "Now, understand ours" and ended clumsily with "Beware of consequences if you don't behave." It lasted 12 minutes, about the time I take to small-dice a few carrots. And we strolled back to the kitchen. No Q&A? 

I was curious to know what my fellow crew members thought and stayed tuned to any comments from them. You know, I didn't hear one single person talk about the meeting. It did not seem to strike any chord with them, nothing positive, negative, just nothing. Could that be worse than getting negative comments? Before the day ended, I too had completely forgotten all about the meeting. Perhaps that is totally acceptable, even expected, as a cook.

Click here to see more ishots of the restaurant.

An important day for the restaurant

New toys for the kitchen crew

Today marks a key milestone in the food-related social enterprise I'm volunteering my time at. Everyone worked real hard and in particular the past 24 hours to ensure the restaurant is ready to be inspected by the regulators and fire safety bureau. Well, the management team was delighted to receive the news today that all is well and it's all systems go from now. 

The kitchen crew got all excited and we unwrapped all equipment like we were opening Christmas presents. We lost no further time to start preparing our mise en place. The time it took me to julienne a carrot, the chef next to me finished 5! I'm one of the most inexperienced in the whole team, so everyone is kind and they try to encourage me. Every cook and chef has his own way of doing things and I got more than my fair share of advice. They work magic with the knives, these guys. In the past 10 days in the classroom training with them, they have been so unimpressive with pens and keyboards but now, the knives seem to be like their extended hands. It was truly impressive and a sight to behold. The chef giving me instructions didn't even know the word 'chiffonade' but his chiffonade cut was to textbook perfection. 

Conscious of my lack of knifing skills, I was careful not to cut myself. No, I didn't want to bleed - literally - for this cause, and I certainly didn't want to be the first. So, I cut real slow. But I did hurt myself today..

First injury. (No, I'm not counting.)

The butcher chopping board which weighs an elephant, measures 6-7 times the length and breath of the home version, and is sharp and slippery when wet. I'd never held one before and it slipped off my arm when I was trying to wash it causing a big bump on my left hand. I'm quite the 'gu-niang' type (meaning, cannot take the slightest cut or pain breed!) and so I decided it was TIME-OUT! I wandered off to the pastry side and sneaked around. 

The pastry chef and I got off on a good start and she has agreed for me to come over whenever I am free. Yippee!

It's full-on tomorrow with the entire crew on duty. It's not your Joel Robuchon restaurant, in fact, it's not even a restaurant, more like a cafeteria, or some people jokingly call it a "high class kopi-tiam" (coffeeshop).  It does not offer the culinary arts which is what I really wish to learn. But I am exactly where I need to be right now. I am so happy to be a part of this journey and will keep raising my hand to thank God for it.