Of course, the original recipe was a little bit too fussy for me, so I have simplified for all of our sake’s. There’s not much to it, but damn, this thing is irresistible. If you have the time to marinate the night before then sit around waiting for this thing to cook, you can easily make it without too much fuss. He recommends it as the filling for a lettuce wrap, but I served it with rice, his recommended scallion-ginger sauce, kimchi, sambal oelek, and a kale and cabbage salad with miso dressing. And for the record, I don’t make my own kimchi, but I am extremely impressed by people who do, mostly because it makes your fridge stink so much, so if that kind of thing interests you maybe David Lebovitz or Jaden Hair can give you an idea of what you’re in for.

Despite his personal issues and lack of respect for my hometown, I remain, as ever, an unabashed devotee of the Chang-inspired recipe.

Oh, and if you think David Chang’s original recipe with all of its bells and whistles will be better than my version, well you are probably right, so you should totally try it.

Recipe: Momofuku Inspired Bo Ssam, aka Korean Slow-Roasted Pork

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 whole boneless pork shoulder, about 8-10 lbs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup + 1 Tblsp kosher salt
• 7 Tblsp brown sugar

Recipe: Ginger-Scallion Sauce

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 bunches scallions, cleaned and chopped (white part and most of green part)
• 1/4 to 1/3 cup grated fresh ginger
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp any kind of vinegar – I used white wine vinegar
• large pinch salt

METHOD:

• Combine all ingredients together a few hours before serving, so the flavors can meld together. Serve alongside pork roast.

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As luck would have it, it turned out to be a very, very good salad that I will be making many more times. When my guests asked for the recipe, I had to demur. I had not even written down the ingredients. So I promised to re-create it as soon as possible and pass along the recipe.

I am not a big fan of raw kale by itself or in big pieces, but shredding it and balancing it with cabbage makes a salad that’s pretty, good for you, and great tasting. I used clementines but if you can’t find them, you can use oranges. At home, I don’t normally supreme my citrus (by which I mean take off all the pithy white bits) but if you want to do that then I recommend this tutorial from Coconut and Lime. I think you could top this with grilled steak or chicken for a main course salad. Enjoy!

Recipe: Kale & Cabbage Salad with Miso Dressing 

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 bunch kale (I used Tuscan, but any kind is fine)
• 1 small head cabbage
• 1-2 avocados, cubed
• 4-5 seedless clementines, peeled and segmented
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• 3 Tblsp olive oil or vegetable oil
• 2 Tblsp white miso paste
• 2 Tblsp rice vinegar
• 1 Tblsp honey
• 2 tsp very hot water
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp smooth Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• salt and pepper to taste

METHOD:

• Wash and dry kale well. Grasp each kale leaf at the bottom of the stalk between your thumb and forefinger, and run your fingers up the stalk to separate the leaf from the stalk. Discard the stalks and stack the leaves. Fold the leaves lengthwise and  shred finely with a large knife. Place in a large salad bowl
• Remove outer leaves and stalk of cabbage, then cut into quarters. Use a large knife to shred as finely as possible. Add to the bowl with the kale. Combine with your hands or salad tongs.
• Top kale and cabbage with clementine segments, almonds, and avocado.
• In a small bowl, whisk remaining ingredients together well, ensuring miso is well broken up and combined. Toss about half the dressing with the salad. Add more dressing if desired. Serve immediately.
• Note: you can make the dressing up to 24 hours in advance if desired. Store in the fridge and whisk well before serving.

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My Dad and I have birthdays a week apart, and often do things together to celebrate. When I turned 6 and he turned 40, I asked my parents if we could eat at Windows on the World, the restaurant at the top of the World Trade Center. (We lived in New York at that time.) I guess at that point my parents realized they had a strangely fancy food-obsessed kid on their hands. I don’t remember much about the food, but I do recall going to the bathroom with my sister, who was 10, and being thoroughly confused by the presence of a restroom attendant. When I turned 16 and he 50, we donned our tuxes and prom dresses and got the best seat at Julius’ Castle, a venerated old dining institution with views of San Francisco Bay. Of course neither of those places is still in business, sadly, but we still try to do food-related birthdays together.

This year I was a little surprised when he told me that for his birthday, he wanted to have a potsticker competition. (OK, not that surprised, considering our past food competitions.) Maybe at this time you’re thinking “what does an old white guy know about making potstickers?” But in fact, as a retired professor, my dear old Dad has had the pleasure of working with scores of visiting Chinese postdoctoral students–and while he edited their neuroscience papers, they shared their dumpling-making secrets. So he has been making excellent potstickers for a couple of decades, at least, and they are better than the ones you get in most restaurants. It also doesn’t hurt that he has traveled to China dozens of times to do lots of taste-testing.

Back to the fierce competition: there were 4 competitors, me, my Dad, and two of his friends. There were also several extremely partisan judges to taste-test the total of seven varieties that were on offer. I am happy to say that I totally kicked a$$ by winning with my Southeast Asian-inspired potstickers. The non-traditional filling includes mint, cilantro, chopped cashews, and lime, along with the more standard potsticker filling items like ground pork and cabbage. 

I kind of cheated though, because I had two entries. Although it came in 4th place, I actually preferred my other entrant, a duck a l’orange potsticker, which involved duck confit and orange zest. So I’ve decided to share both recipes with you.

If I’m making 2 kinds, I like to fold them differently so it’s easy to tell which is which. I’ve included directions for both square and round wrappers, so if you’re making multiple varieties, you might want to make one type with square wrappers and one type with circular wrappers.

It’s more fun (read: easier) if more people help out, like an assembly line.

A caveat: we don’t make our own dough, which some people might think is lame. (I’m happy to see that the inimitable Jaden Hair agrees it’s not really worth it. However, the unparalleled Andrea Nguyen would probably disagree.) Baby steps, people. It took us 25 years to get this good at the other aspects of potstickery. We’ve got big plans to attempt a reverse engineering of  Shanghai’s finest Yang’s crispy dumplings, dough included, in the near future. I favor Japanese gyoza skins for my potstickers, because they are a little bit thinner. You can buy Japanese gyoza wrappers or Chinese potsticker skins in the refrigerated section of an Asian market.

• 1 lb ground pork
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup finely chopped mint leaves
• 1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro leaves
• 3-4 cloves finely chopped garlic
• 2 Tblsp grated ginger
• 1/3 head chopped cabbage, lightly sauteed in a teaspoon of sesame oil and dried on paper towels
• 1/2 cup grated carrot
• 1/3 cup finely chopped cashews
• 2 Tblsp soy sauce
• 1 Tblsp sesame oil
• zest of 1 lime
• sambal oelek or sriracha to taste
• 1-2 packages gyoza or potsticker wrappers
• vegetable oil for cooking

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If you haven’t worked with fresh lemongrass before, here’s a helpful post about how to prepare the stalks for cooking.

Recipe: Toasted Broccoli Soup with Coriander and Lemongrass

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 2 bunches baby broccoli, roughly chopped
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 tsp coriander seeds
• 6 cups chicken or vegetable broth
• 1 stalk lemongrass, trimmed and roughly chopped
• 3 inch piece of ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
• pinch of chili flakes (or more to taste)
• 1 Tblsp rice vinegar
• juice of 1 lemon

METHOD:

• Heat sesame oil in a medium-large pot over high heat. When oil is hot, add chopped broccoli and toast in the oil about 5 minutes, until the edges start to brown.
• Add garlic and coriander seeds and cook about 20 seconds, until garlic is fragrant.
• Add chicken broth, lemongrass, ginger, and chili flakes. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and cook about 15 minutes. Crack the lid slightly to let the steam off.
• Add rice vinegar and lemon juice. Puree very well in batches until smooth. Taste and add soy sauce or salt to season if necessary.
• Serve with additional chili flakes and a drizzle of sesame oil.

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A few notes to make your life easier: since you are supposed to puree the Asian pear, you might as well take advantage of the food processor for other parts of the prep. So I used the shredding blade to julienne the onions, carrot, and garlic first, then dumped those out and switched to the normal blade to puree the pear. This cut down significantly on prep time. The brisket can be tough to slice but it’s easier if you stick it in the freezer for about 30 minutes and sharpen your butcher knife well. And do make sure you get really good-quality buns.

I also cooked up most of the shredded carrots with the meat (they were stuck to it anyway.) This turned out to be a great idea because they got very dark and caramelized and added a lot of depth to the sandwich.

Last thing: the recipe tells you to butter the toasted buns. In fact, I forgot to butter them but the sandwiches were still very rich and definitely not lacking for fatty goodness. I can’t believe I’m going to recommend this, but… I don’t think you need the butter. I would skip it.

(Somewhere, a pig just flew. Probably through a very cold and ice-filled Hell.)

Here’s the recipe: this one gets top marks from me!

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I absolutely love flavorful, slow-cooked, melting-off-the-bone short ribs, and have tried several recipes (including the Thomas Keller version, which paled in comparison to these.) This recipe has been adapted, over five years or so, from a recipe that David Chang supplied to the New York Times several years ago, pre-Momofuku fame and fortune. To my mind, they are the best short ribs I have ever eaten.

Although I’m usually not a fussy cook, the end result of a fabulous pot of short ribs is totally worth it. There isn’t a ton of fussing around, but you do have to hang out for about 3 hours while they cook in the oven. You can prepare them most of the way the day before, and finish them the next day before serving. Because they have an Asian-ish flavor, I think they pair best with a side of rice, but mashed potatoes work well too.

A note: if your proportions of apple juice, sake, and mirin are not exact, it’s OK. I usually buy a sake bottle that ends up having a little more than a cup, and a bottle of apple juice that has a little less than 1 1/2 cups. As long as the total of apple juice, sake, and mirin equals roughly 3 1/2 cups, you’ll be OK.

The Best Short Ribs You’ll Ever Eat
serves 8

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 – 3 Tblsp vegetable or canola oil
• 7 to 8 pounds “English cut” beef short ribs, cut into pieces with one-bone each
• 1 1/2 cups apple juice (flat or sparkling)
• 1 cup sake (filtered – not nigori)
• 1 cup mirin
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup soy sauce
• 1 Tblsp sesame oil
• 10 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
• 1 large onion, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 large carrot, roughly chopped (you don’t need to peel it)
• salt and pepper

METHOD:

• Preheat oven to 350. Season short ribs with salt and pepper.
• Put oil in a pot that’s 6 quarts or larger and heat over high heat. When the oil is hot, add ribs to brown on one side (you will need to do this in batches.) After 4-5 minutes, turn the ribs to brown on another side. Remove from pot and put on a plate. Repeat with remaining batches of ribs.
• Meanwhile, put apple juice, sake, mirin, sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, and garlic in a pot and heat just to a boil. Turn off heat and set aside.
• When all of the ribs are cooked and out of the pot, add onions and carrots to the pot and cook 3-5 minutes to brown, stirring often.
• When onions and carrots are browned, add short ribs back to the pot. Pour the liquid over and try to get the ribs completely covered by the liquid. (It’s OK if a few of them are poking above the liquid a bit.) Cover with a lid and put them in the oven. Cook for 2-3 hours, until meat is soft enough to pull easily from the bones.
• (At this point, you have 3 choices: start the next step right away, wait about an hour so things cool down a bit before you handle them, or put the whole pot in the fridge for a few hours, or overnight, and pull it out to finish the dish about 30 minutes before serving. If you choose the latter, you can easily remove the hardened fat layer before proceeding.)
• Remove the ribs from the pot (I use tongs for this) and remove the bones (they should just fall out easily.) Discard the bones and set the meat aside.
• Strain the liquid, reserving all of the liquid in a bowl. Discard the solids (or, save them for later–they taste pretty good tossed with pasta the next day.)
• Return the strained liquid to the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce the sauce so it thickens a bit, about 20 minutes. Add short ribs back to the liquid to heat through. Serve immediately.

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I made a half ration of Ginger Sesame Ahi Poke too, and served the two side by side. (In that post, I also discuss facts and myths about “sushi-grade” fish, and how I select and buy fish to eat raw.) It couldn’t be easier to toss everything in a bowl and let it mesh for 30 minutes. With a squeeze of fresh lime and a squirt of Sriracha, Hawaii was calling once again.

Salmon Avocado Poke with Lime and Mint

serves 3-4

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. salmon fillet, skin removed and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 1/4 cup minced green garlic or green onion, white and light green parts only
• 1/2 tsp grated ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 2 Tblsp soy sauce
• 1 Tblsp sesame oil
• 2 small or 1 large lime
• 8-10 fresh mint leaves, chopped finely
• 1 ripe avocado, cut in 1/2 inch cubes

Method:

• Put salmon cubes, green garlic or green onion, grated ginger, coriander, soy sauce, and sesame oil in a non-metal bowl and stir with a rubber spatula to combine.
• Zest the lime and add the zest to the bowl, stirring to mix. Reserve the zested lime.
• Add the mint and avocado and gently mix together.
• Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for 30-60 minutes.
• Remove from fridge and squeeze reserved lime over salmon. Mix together. Serve immediately with Sriracha or other hot sauce on the side.

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I imagined they’d be like the usual flesh-toned chickpeas, except smaller and darker. Not so. After some experimentation, I learned that these little guys are nuttier and less prone to mushiness than other beans, and they hold their shape better during cooking. The effect is somewhere around 20% corn-nut and 80% cooked bean. Cooking them in aromatic coconut milk in the oven and finishing them on the stove with fresh herbs and lime is a reasonably no-fuss way to make the best of this hearty, nutty, unusual legume. The Thai-inspired flavors compliment them well.

I like this on its own or as a side dish with simple grilled chicken skewers or slow-cooked salmon. For an attractive one-dish presentation, you can lay the chickpeas on a platter and top with meat or fish. For a hearty vegetarian meal, you can make the recipe all the way through, let the beans come to room temperature, then add some diced tomatoes and cucumbers and mix it all together.

I bought a 14 oz. bag at Golden Natural Foods here in San Francisco, but you can buy the same brand online.

Thai-Style Black Chickpeas

serves 6 as a side dish

Ingredients:

• 14 oz dried black chickpeas
• 1 13 or 14 oz. can coconut milk
• 2 cardamom pods
• 20 black peppercorns
• 1 tsp whole cumin
• 1 tsp whole coriander
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 bunch green onions, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup packed cilantro leaves, finely chopped
• zest and juice of 1 large or 2 small limes
• sriracha or other hot sauce, to taste

Method:

• Preheat oven to 325.
• Rinse chickpeas well and drain. Place them in a heavy 4-5 qt. pot with a tight-fitting lid, like a dutch oven or Le Creuset. Add the coconut milk plus 2 cans of water.
• Using a spice grinder, mortar and pestle, or food processor, grind the cardamom pods, peppercorns, cumin, coriander, and salt together. Add to the pot.
• Place in the oven and cook about 2 hours, until beans are soft enough to eat but still firm. There will still be some liquid in the pot.
• Place the pot on top of the stove over medium high heat and continue cooking until all liquid has been absorbed, scraping down the sides frequently with a spatula.
• When there is just a little bit of liquid left, remove from heat and stir in green onions, cilantro, lime juice and zest, and sriracha to taste. Add salt if needed.
• If using as a side dish, remove to bowl and serve immediately. If making as a salad, let cool to room temperature and add 1-2 chopped tomatoes and 1 peeled, chopped cucumber and mix well before serving.

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If you’ve ever read a tech blog, then you are surely aware of the tech blogger’s absurd fetish for unboxing. Unboxing, which is the act of videotaping oneself taking a new gadget out of a box and putting it on the internet, has been referred to as “geek porn”. You may not know this about me, but I used to write for a geeky techie blog called Technabob. So I think there’s a little bit of that geeky unboxing drive still left inside, although since this is soy sauce and not an iPhone, I opted for a few still shots instead of a video. Inside the box was a pretty brown bottle that kind of looked medicinal, like a hydrogen peroxide bottle. Food geek porn?

I looked up white soy sauce on the trusty internets to try to learn more about it, but mostly found conflicting information. Here is what I do know: It’s a Japanese product, called shiro shoyu (shiro=white, shoyu=soy.) This website says that dark soy sauce is made from 80% soybeans and 20% wheat, while white soy sauce is the opposite–20% soybeans and 80% wheat.

But is the soy sauce really white? No. More like the color of a nice amber ale. And a little fizzy too.

So what about the taste? I think the white soy sauce is more subtle, less salty, with less umami, and a little sweeter. I wanted to experiment so I thought that it would be fun to pair white soy sauce with black rice.

Why? Well… it actually came to me because when I was a kid I used to love the Paul McCartney/Stevie Wonder song “Ebony and Ivory” A LOT. I was 6 years old when it first topped the charts, and it really made a lasting impression on me. Thanks to the magic of the internet, I can share this message of racial harmony and bad hairstyles with you. I also very much appreciate how Stevie Wonder has on a black shirt and white vest, while McCartney is sporting a white shirt and black vest. They didn’t miss a single opportunity to highlight the song’s theme, did they?

One more thing: if your local store doesn’t happen to carry things like $18 soy sauce, you can buy it on Amazon. Of course, you could also just make this recipe with regular soy sauce, and I bet it will still taste good.

Black Rice Salad with White Soy Sauce

Ingredients:

• 2 tsp vegetable oil
• 1/2 head red cabbage, cored and sliced thinly
• 2 tsp rice vinegar
• 1 Tbsp sesame oil, divided
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped in small cubes
• 2 medium shallots, chopped finely
• 5 cups cooked black (forbidden) rice
• 2-3 Tbsp white soy sauce
• 4 scallions, finely chopped
• 1 Tblsp roasted sesame seeds
• 1/4 cup chopped roasted cashews

Method:

• Heat the vegetable oil in a large saute pan over high heat. Add the cabbage and a large pinch of salt and saute for 3-5 minutes, until cabbage is softened but still bright purple and with a slight bite. Turn off heat and toss with rice vinegar. Spread around the rim of a large serving platter.
• In the same pan, heat 1 tsp sesame oil. Add the carrots and cook about 5 minutes, until they start to brown. Add the shallots and cook until carrots are soft and shallots are translucent.
• Add the cooked rice, 2 tsp sesame oil, the white soy sauce, the chopped scallions, and the sesame seeds. Cook for about 5 minutes to heat through.
• Arrange the rice in the middle of the cabbage and garnish with cashwews. Serve immediately.

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I made dinner for some friends who couldn’t have any dairy, so I thought this would be a fun departure from the average lactose-lacking side dish. Since forbidden rice doesn’t have the same starch structure as arborio or carnaroli rice (the typical Italian rice types used for risotto) this doesn’t get quite as creamy as a traditional risotto. On the plus side, it’s dairy free, vegan, and delicious. I served it with these excellent sweet chili baby back ribs from Steamy Kitchen. A hit all around!

Asian Forbidden Risotto

Ingredients:

• 1 Tblsp olive oil
• 2 shallots, chopped finely
• 2 cups forbidden rice
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup white miso
• 2 Tblsp rice vinegar
• 1 Tblsp soy sauce
• 2 lemongrass stalks, cut into a few pieces
• 1 inch piece ginger, peeled and chopped in a few pieces
• chili flakes (if desired)
• 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 bunch asparagus, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
• 3 scallions, chopped
• 1/2 large or 1 small red bell pepper, sliced thinly and chopped into 1 inch pieces
• sesame seeds for garnish

Method:

• Heat olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add shallots and cook until soft. Add rice and garlic and cook 1 minute, until garlic is fragrant.
• Dissolve miso in rice vinegar and soy sauce. Add into rice, along with lemongrass and ginger. (Count the pieces of lemongrass and ginger so you know how many to fish out at the end!) Add chili flakes to taste if desired.
• Add about a cup of stock and lower the heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until stock has mostly been absorbed. Add stock in this manner until rice is cooked through. If it’s not fully cooked after you’ve added all the stock, add water a bit at a time until cooked through.
• Meanwhile, saute the chopped asparagus in the teaspoon of sesame oil just until it begins to brown. When rice is cooked, stir asparagus, scallions, and bell peppers into the rice.
• Sprinkle sesame seeds on top. Serve immediately.

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