Weekend Project: Lamb Bacon

Just wanted to keep the world posted on something I will be trying out this coming weekend.

A few months ago, I came across this article in the NY Times which talked about making lamb bacon. Well, we live in a pork-free zone, and so I have been toying with the idea of making lamb bacon. I tried it once already, actually, in October - but I did it wrong. After curing the meat, I didn't soak it to remove the excess salt - the post-roasting result was way too salty - we're talking, cringe-worthy salty.

I've found another article in the North Coast Journal on making lamb bacon, which I will be trying out. Actually, I already began curing the lamb two nights ago. Will give it another 2 days in fridge. Then, on Saturday... it's on.

But here is the big challenge ahead: smoking. I want to try to smoke the bacon before slicing it and frying it. Smoking meat here is difficult for a few reasons: 1) nobody here has a smoker or ever smokes their meat - "You foreigners are just so strange..." 2) I don't have a backyard in which I can build an underground pit with which to smoke salmon, like Alton Brown; 3) I'm not sure where I can find wood chips out here.

So, there is a chance that I will make a homemade stovetop smoker using my wok. Just need to get permission from the Executive Chef.

Well, I am documenting the process and will keep you posted on how it goes. If all goes well, perhaps we will have bacon on Christmas morning after all.

Kitchen Duties, Top Chef, and Teamwork

In our oral conversation class today, the teacher asked us about household chores, wanting to know how chores are divided up in different homes and among different cultures. When it came our turn to talk about how chores are divided in our home, I managed to say, "我们家的杂务平分的。 她做饭。 我吃饭。" (In our home, the chores are divided up evenly. She cooks. I eat.) The teacher and students got a kick out of that one.

In the kitchen, Bethany and I have come to a pretty established routine regarding the division of labor. This is especially the case when cooking up a big meal for guests. Usually, I get the tasks of washing and chopping vegetables, and of washing dishes. Bethany gets the task of cooking and managing stoves and pots and mixes. This has worked out quite well for us. I like chopping vegetables and using knives. And Bethany is gifted at the actual cooking, putting together delicious meals. In the end, we have garlic and green onions that have been minced well, a meal that is delicious, and a kitchen that is clean.

There is really only one tv show that I will watch, fairly consistently, with my wife: Top Chef. I think that this has given us both a glimpse of what it looks like to cook in a professional kitchen, put together great food, and work under time pressure. And, at times, we get to see how different chefs work together and relate while under pressure.

I sense we take some of our cues from what we see on this show, especially when Bethany is managing 2 pots and an oven while I am breaking down a chicken and chopping garlic, ginger, and green onions. We have come to work pretty efficiently and well together. I think we make a pretty good team.

I Am A Food Snob

This weekend, I received an e-mail from this ex-pat businessman who sells and delivers western food in this city. He sent us a list of the new items that he will be selling. I read over the list of items, and initially, I had a mixed reaction. Some things I was super excited about, such as chick peas, pasta, pretzels, cheerios, tortilla chips, and ziplock bags. Some of the other stuff, such as the Betty Crocker cake mix, can of stewed tomatoes, salsa, Celestial Seasonings tea, made me feel weird. I know I am super happy to have the opportunity to order these items, and am not trying to be ungrateful, but I still felt weird.

So I decided to analyze my negative reaction to this list; this exercise actually showed me a lot about myself.

One thing I enjoy doing while living here is making food from scratch. I like the challenge, as well as the sense of accomplishment when it is finished. Yet, so much can go wrong in the process of making food from scratch. But that is almost the challenge. But, with Betty Crocker cake mix, not too much can go wrong unless you don’t follow the directions. I almost feel like, now, if I make a cake from scratch and it is a disaster, people will think, why didn’t you just use Betty Crocker? Betty Crocker is now a temptation that I didn’t have to deal with the last two months.

Also, before, when I make salsa here, it is almost a novelty and the consumers gave me grace because that is the best salsa we can get, because it is the only salsa we can get. Now that we can get Tostitos Salsa, my salsa will now be shoved aside for the real stuff.

Another reason for the reaction is that some things I find on the list are a little funny. For example, Celestial Seasonings Tea. I believe the country we live in has tea. Actually, it has a lot of tea. Yes, it doesn’t have cinnamon tea or Earl Grey tea, but it has tea. I guess, though, my family didn’t grow up on Celestial Seasonings Tea, but other families did, and thus it brings people comfort to have Black Cherry Berry tea. Therefore, I should stop being such a snob, and be happy that some people can get comforts here that make them feel like they are at home.

Lastly, sometimes I like that there are some things you can’t get here. When I got this list, I thought, wow, I can not get everything here. I think I almost prided myself on being able to live without many of the comforts of home. Yet, as I look at the way I am salivating at some of the other items on the list, I realize that I am a total hypocrite. I love that I am able to order cheese, eat pretzels, have tortilla chips, and I could store all of these now in Ziploc bags. In the same way I am looking down at people wanting to buy tea, other people reading the list may think I am weird because I want to order tortilla chips.

Wow, just looking at why I reacted the way I did, taught me a lot about myself. First, I am a total food snob. Second, I like the attention/pride from being able to make food from scratch even if it is not as tasty as the box/canned/jarred stuff. Third, I am a hypocrite. Fourth, I get pride from thinking I am able to live off what I think are the minimal items in life.

I could go on, but I really would like to eat cheese on tortilla chips. Oh, where is my order form?

Chicken, I Hate Your Guts

And you stink too!

The other day, Alvin and I were talking about making rotisserie chicken in our toaster oven. This oven can fit a 9x13 pan, and also has a rotisserie stick to roast chicken.

I have made whole chickens in the states, so I thought, "how hard could it be?"

So I went to my friendly outdoor butcher who has a fridge and keeps whole chicken in it. But he said, "no fresh chickens today, sorry."

So I walked by this other butcher, and saw that he was selling whole chicken. But as I was asking him how much a chicken was, I started to gag on the smell. I have noticed that sometimes when I buy chicken here, it can have a rotten smell. Maybe it is because some butchers don't have a fridge and it is an outdoor market in the middle of the summer. But for some reason, I really wanted to eat rotisserie chicken, and so I bought it.

When I got home, I realized, preparing this chicken is going to be very difficult. First, the head and feet are still attached. It is really hard emotionally butchering a chicken when its head is still attached. I feel like I only like to eat meat when I haven't seen its face. So, I took my butcher knife, and quickly cut off the head. As first, I unconsciously covered my eyes so I wouldn't have to see the chicken's head, but then I realized that I wanted to keep my fingers intact, so looking while I cut would be good for all.

Next came the harder task, de-gutting the chicken. In the past, de-gutting is no problem because it includes sticking my hand into the cavity and taking out the already packaged innards, and then throwing it away. Here, it is the real thing. First, I looked into the chicken, and stuck my hand in. It was squishy and the smell of the chicken made me gag and I think I may have threw up in my mouth. But I couldn't do much about that because my hands were in a chicken. So finally, after putting the chicken in a bowl, I told myself I had to do it. No one else was going to come in and rescue me. So in one hand I held a paring knife to detach the organs from the cavity, and with the other hand I grabbed and discarded the organs. Eeew, I kept telling the chicken, "I hate your guts!"

When it was time to put the chicken in the oven, I realized that the chicken was too heavy. As a result, the rotisserie stick wasn't able to turn. Yikes, after a huge ordeal, I put it on a roast pan and just roasted it.

The chicken turned out pretty good and nobody got sick from it. I only served it to Alvin because I didn't want to send anyone to the hospital. I also made mashed potatoes and bok choy. That was easy compared to the chicken.

I think I will do whole chicken again, but next time I will buy a smaller chicken, buy it from butcher with a fridge, and kindly ask the butcher to get rid of the insides for me. Also, I might want to invest in some nose plugs.

The Whole is Less than the Sum of its Parts

Yesterday at the market, we came across a few ingredients which all go into a dessert that we have had at a restaurant in Monterey Park, a dessert which we absolutely love.

So, as sort of an experiment, I tried to make the dessert tonight, by reverse engineering my memory of the Monterey Park dessert and combining those insights with pieces from various recipes found online.

The result... is not worth writing a blog entry about. Let's just say that the dessert went the way of Saturday's kim-chee.

So instead of telling you about the final result dessert, I thought we would have a fun little "guess the ingredient" game. Came you name these three ingredients which were all part of my not-so-wonderful-dessert?

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