April 9th, 2010
Okay, here’s just a quick post with a pretty picture of deep fried pork skin. I tried David Changs method and even though he says drying the skin in the oven is unreliable, it turned out to work great for me.
The taste of the deep fried crunchy pieces for themselves is kind of neutral and just a little bit pork-ish, but once you give them a little flavor with japanese 7 spice powder the thing gets more interesting. The fat brings out the flavor of the spice and suddenly it’s a great snack. I will definitely have to try to put it on other food, like croutons or something.
April 4th, 2010
I’m sorry for not posting as regularly as usual, but I’m still not completely over the whole cold plus ear pain thing. But at least, I had some fantastic hamburgers (i’m gonna tell you more about them soon) yesterday. Now I’ll go on with one of last week’s recipes, a thai curry with pork medaillons that were crusted with ground peanuts and almonds.
A thai-style curry is always a great dish in spring or summer. The fresh taste of all the ingredients you choose is the perfect contrast to the heat and spicyness. I prefer having the meat separately, rather than just throwing it into the pot. Kind of gives you more possibilities for playing with it. In this case, I’m talking about the nut-crust, that is adding some nice toasted nutty flavor to the whole thing.
Last week, when I was going to the grocery store, I saw (and smelled) some beautiful fresh pineapples and I just couldn’t resist. Also, I got some sugar snap peas, baby asparagus, thai basil and some other things at my favorite asian grocery store, so I was perfectly equipped for creating this pretty dish.
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March 25th, 2010
Spring is here. Seriously, I don’t think i’ve ever been happier about a change in weather in my entire life. Berlin is just so much more charming, when not hidden under a dangerously high layer of ice and snow. Not to mention the temperatures.
When spring (and even better: summer) arrives, the actual Berlin suddenly shows. People sitting outside. Life: almost everywhere and almost all the time. Everyone’s heading to the parks, that were hidden below snow for far too long.
Berlin is just so charming. In summer you can even find a little used bookshop, that is still open at 2 a.m., the owner sitting in- or outside and having a nice glass of wine. It’s just fantastic!
Spring changes everything. Nature, people and of course: Food. This definitely is perfect spring food. The combination of the warm and crunchy crust of the pork and the refreshing ranch and vegetables is just divine. It leaves you deeply satisfied and filled, but in a good and light way.
I actually got the idea for cooking this dish in David Chang’s Momofuku cookbook (again). There is a dish of thin pork shoulder steaks with ramp ranch dressing and the big picture also showed some vegetables on the steak that were not included in the recipe. I actually didn’t have any pickled ramps and/or scallions here so I figured it would also be great with a kind of standard ranch dressing and some mixed vegetables. It was just what I was craving for.
It would be a perfect thing to prepare and just throw on the grill while sitting in the park. My flatmates and I loved it so much, we really felt like we should have bought a lot more.
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