Caramelized Pork Belly and Quail Eggs

Recently, pork bellies have been all the rave. Iron Chef Michael Simon lives and dies by them during his battles in Kitchen Stadium and David Chang's braised pork belly on steamed buns is stuff of legends. But before they were so popular on food shows and trendy restaurants, this cut of meat was always cooked at home by people such as my mom and maybe your mom.

The Vietnamese use this cut in their Thit Kho and we Laotians use it in our Tom Khem, which is best described as pork belly stew (the two are almost the exact same thing by the way). Looking back to my younger years, I think my mom was onto something when she used to make this pork belly dish called "Moo Vahn" which literally translates to sweet pork. Who would've known that the dish she used to prepare for me as a child could one day be classified as fine dining material. That makes me wonder what the next new culinary fad will be, I better ask my mom, I think she has a little bit of insight.

Ingredients:

1 pound pork belly (cut into 2-3 inch pieces)

4 tablespoon oyster sauce

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1-2 inch piece of ginger (julienne cut)

3-4 garlic cloves (minced)

1 medium shallot (thinly sliced)

1 can quail eggs

1/2 cup water

1 tablespoon canola oil

Directions:

Heat a wok or a deep pan on high heat. Add the oil, shallots and garlic. Cook this for about a minute, don't let the garlic burn as it will cause it to become bitter. Add the pork belly and continue cooking and stirring for about 5 minutes as this will add a sear to the meat. Add the oyster sauce and sugar and reduce the heat down to medium-low. Cover the pan or pot and cook for 15 minutes to infuse the flavors. After the 15 minutes, add water and stir the meat and cover the pan or pot again and cook for 45 minutes - as this is to tenderize the meat. Lastly, add the ginger and quail eggs and cover and cook for another 15 minutes. After the 15 minutes, with a spoon begin removing the excess oil and discard. Turn the heat back on to high and stir the pork belly and eggs for about 2-3 minutes or until the proteins look like they have a thick brown coating on them. Removing the cover will let release the moisture and all the sauce to reduce at a faster pace. This last part will caramelize the proteins and will create great flavor. Finally, remove the pork belly and eggs and serve with rice.

Pad Kapow Gai (Thai Chicken Basil)

This past weekend I attended the Gypsy Picnic here in Austin, Texas. This was a celebration of the Austin food culture – the growing popularity of food trucks and carts.

If you've been to downtown Austin lately you'll know what I'm talking about. I’m assuming the event turned out better than expected and caught the promoters and vendors off guard; as it was one of the most chaotic things I've ever witness. Vendors were running out of food and there were no formal lines to visit each vendor; as they zig zagged and crossed each other throughout all of Auditorium Shores. However, we were able to visit a few vendors and sample what they had to offer but my group grew tired of waiting in the lines and the food running out.

So we thought the best option was to go across the street to other food vendors that weren't part of the festival. Smart plan right? WRONG! When we showed up we thought we did the right thing - until we placed our order. The Thai food vendor we ordered from stated that our food would be ready in 20 - 25 minutes from the time we ordered. That's quite a long time to wait for Thai food but we decided to do so. One person from my group ordered the Pad Kapow and I ordered the spicy beef tacos. I was really excited to see what was in the tacos. About an hour later, the vendor never called my name to pick up the food and when I approached the vendor, he stated that they haven't even started on our order yet. Mind you, we’ve already waited an hour. To put an end to this story, we didn't get our food. I was both disappointed and hungry.

Since I paid a visit to the Asian grocery store this past weekend I decided that I would make the Pad Kapow dish that we didn't get to sample. Also, an old college buddy has been harassing me to post this recipe since I prepared it for her the last time she was over for dinner.

Ingredients:

1 to 1 1/2 pounds chicken (breast and/or boneless thighs) cut into 2 x 1/8 inch pieces
Ginger that has been cut to 1 x 2 x 3 inch piece (julienne cut)
2 scallions (roughly chopped)
6-8 kaffir lime leaves
6-8 sprigs Thai basil (leaves only)
3-4 garlic cloves (roughly chopped)
1 medium shallot (thinly sliced)
4 Thai chili peppers (roughly chopped)
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
2 tablespoon oyster sauce
3 tablespoon soy sauce (soy sauce with mushroom is even better)
1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Directions:

Add oil to wok or deep pan and set to high heat. When oil is ready, add garlic and shallots. As soon as the shallots become translucent, toss in all of the chicken. Cook for approximately 2 minutes then add: the hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, soy sauce, and sugar and cook for another 2 minutes. Next, add the ginger, kaffir lime leaves, and chili peppers and cook for another 2 minutes. Finally, turn off the heat and add the basil and scallions and toss well in the wok/pan. Serve with steamed Jasmine rice or pan fried noodles.