Pork Shoulder Stew

Braising is one of the best ways to get great value out of inexpensive cuts of meat. Beef chuck and chicken leg quarters are great for this, but my favorite is the ever-versatile pork shoulder. I've gone a few different directions with this over the years, from a Mexican-style pulled pork to the Chinese hongshao style. This time, braised the pork in the classic French way, with a mirepoix base, white wine, mustard, and herbs. It's the kind of thing I imagine might be eaten in the French countryside, but given I haven't actually been there, I'm probably just blowing smoke. "Authentic" or not, this dish was very easy to put together, has phenomenal flavor, and is made completely from basic, staple ingredients.

I broke down the pork shoulder (a Boston butt from Sam's Club) in my usual way, ending up with a bit of fat saved, four pounds of strips for char siu, and the two pounds of pork chunks and bone for this recipe. I usually save the bones to make pork stock, but since I just made some a few days ago, I decided to throw the bone into the stew. The bone typically has some extra meat on it, which I never let go to waste. This also helps to infuse the braising liquid with even more flavor.

The recipe itself is pretty loose, and I'm confident there are many variations that would work. I had a very large onion (about a pound) and carrots and celery adding up to about 10 ounces, but use what's available. From this base recipe, one could easily add some smoked meats, like bacon or sausage. More vegetables, such as tomato or cabbage, would be interesting additions. I always like some kind of starch with a stew. We had mashed potatoes, but crusty bread, egg noodles, rice, or just boiled potatoes would all do nicely. Whatever the choices, a hearty stew like this is a perfect dinner for a chilly February. 

Birthday Special 2021 and 2020 in Review

Another year means another birthday cake! For this year's cake, I made Molly Yeh's sprinkle cake, which is meant to be a homemade version of the classic "funfetti" boxed cake. For the decoration, I continued with the sprinkle theme for a simple design. Overall, the cake came out well, but cake baking continues to be stressful for me in a way regular cooking has never been. I have resolved to make more cakes throughout the year to get some more practice in. Happy birthday Ariel, and may that be an ongoing gift to you.

For dinner, I made pan-roasted lamb chops with a quick pan sauce. We had roasted butternut squash and rice on the side. Although it was a delicious meal, we look forward being able to celebrate with others next year. In last year's birthday post, I mentioned my hope that it would be the first of many big dinners around our table. Of course, 2020 had other plans and that hasn't happened yet. 

I'll take the rest of this post to look back at 2020 and take stock of what was surely one of the strangest years of my lifetime.

Shrimp Noodle Bowls

About a year on from the initial COVID-19 outbreak in Hubei, our lives continue to be dominated by the pandemic. Ariel and I have maintained our own safety protocols, which include contactless pickup of groceries about every two weeks. It's important as ever to plan for meals which lack the freshest of produce. The noodle bowls in today's post were a recent invention of mine, intended as an easy lunch that uses up odds and ends with a long shelf life. When Ariel asked me to make them again, I knew it was time for a blog post!

The noodles I used here are thin rice noodles called Xinzhu mifen (新竹米粉), which originate in the Taiwanese city of Hsinchu. I have only used these in one other recipe (minced pigeon), where they are just a fried topping and not the main event. Being so thin, they don't need to be parboiled and only need to soak for a few minutes to be ready to eat. All the vegetables I used have a long shelf life, and the shrimp can be defrosted just before cooking. This is the kind of dish with infinite variations depending on what is on hand. Scallions are a nice addition if available, but don't hold up quite as well as carrots and regular onions. The runny egg on top was Ariel's idea. While I have labeled it "optional," it's a great addition which pulls the whole thing together. This recipe makes enough for two bowls.

Meatloaf

Community and church cookbooks are remarkable historical artifacts to those interested in the evolution of food and the preservation of our culinary heritage. As far as No Free Lunch is concerned, such books were instrumental in recreating party salad and klub. My grandmother, Irene Storey, was a pillar of her Twin Cities church and contributed numerous recipes to their cookbook. One of these was meatloaf. While it's not a dish I particularly remember her making, we had meatloaf somewhat regularly when I was a kid, and it was also in regular rotation at the business school cafeteria at Carnegie Mellon. It's safe to say it's a comfort food for many people all over the United States.

As a true American classic, there is tremendous variation in meatloaf recipes. For my version, I wanted to stay true to the structure of the fairly basic church version while incorporating ideas from more modern recipes. I consulted my usual group of online sources, including Kenji, Alton Brown, Adam Ragusea, and Elise Bauer. Typical meatloaf recipes do have a lot in common: about 2 pounds of meat, some kind of vegetables, and texture modifiers including eggs, breadcrumbs, and milk. Ketchup-based toppings are also a frequent addition. The unique features of this recipe, retained from the church cookbook, are the Worcestershire sauce and an additional egg not present in most I've seen. The main change I made is adding more vegetables and cooking them before folding into the meat. The classic meat blend consists of beef, pork, and veal, similar to a traditional meatball. As veal is hard to find these days, I did a 50/50 blend of beef and pork, which is also what I use for hotdish. There's a lot of room for experimentation with different meat blends. 

The cooking method also varies quite a bit from recipe to recipe. Adam Ragusea hand-forms the loaf. Elise Bauer bakes it in a loaf pan. Alton Brown uses the loaf pan to form the meatloaf, but flips it out for cooking. Kenji cooks it in the loaf pan for a while, then flips it out to finish. As the church cookbook is silent on this issue, I went with Alton's method. This allows us to get a nicely formed loaf while also maximizing surface area on which to spread the ketchup topping. I used a 9x5 inch silicone loaf pan (I think we got it at Aldi), and the meatloaf came out easily. A slightly smaller pan would also work fine, yielding a taller loaf. 

Since I had 4 pounds of meat, I made two meatloaves. I froze most of it after slicing, in preparation for busier times once classes start. The recipe given here is for one loaf, but the pictures show the doubled recipe. I made one with bacon on top and one without. The bacon adds some smokiness, but is definitely not necessary and makes the loaf a little tricky to cut. The end result of both was a tender, juicy meatloaf full of flavor. The only thing I would do differently is to put on more of the ketchup topping. There's also plenty of room for experimentation with different seasonings beyond this classic version. Mashed potatoes make a perfect accompaniment, which can be easily done on the stove while the meatloaf is in the oven. 

Savory Kolaches

Going to the farmer's market every Saturday was one of our favorite things to do in Bloomington. While we certainly enjoyed the produce on offer, we really went for the breakfast options. Whether that was crepes and croques at Le Petit Café, Brown County Coffee, or Aahaa Chai, there was always something tasty to be found. Our all-time favorite, though, was Sweet Claire Bakery, which always had a line around the corner. It is here we were introduced to kolaches: sweet buns with lots of different filling options. More than two years after we left town, we have greatly missed them... until now. Ariel got in touch with the proprietor and got the dough recipe, and I went to work dreaming up some fillings. We were blown away with how good the results were, and I'm excited to share them.

Kolaches originated in Central Europe, like so many other delicious things, made their way to the United States with the immigrants who loved them. Czech communities have made them especially popular in Texas. From what I can tell, the original Czech version has strictly sweet fillings, but creative American cooks have moved them in a savory direction. We came up with two fillings, loosely inspired by what we remembered from the kolaches we had in Bloomington. Both types were delicious.

The first is a braised chicken I've been calling "adobo chicken," not to be confused with the grilled version I posted last summer. This was fairly similar to my pulled pork recipe, but uses chicken thighs and tomatoes. It's a little spicy on its own, but this balances out inside the bun with. The filling is rounded out with half a hard-boiled egg. The chicken turned out very well and would also be great in a taco. Because it is a saucy filling, there were some structural problems on the bottoms, so it's important to make sure they are thick enough to hold up. It wasn't too bad, but it's something to watch out for. The second emulates a classic breakfast sandwich with sausage, egg, and cheese. The main question here was how to do the eggs. I decided to make French-style rolled omelettes and put half an omelette in each kolache. This worked out very well because they hold up well while not drying out. These kolaches turned out great. The only adjustment we would make is adding a little more cheese. 

The dough recipe is reproduced from what we received from Sweet Claire. The original recipe was given in baker's percentages, with this set to make 12 kolaches. As such, the amounts are all in grams - a little unusual for this blog. A good scale is a great addition to any kitchen. We made 6 of each type of kolache. The chicken recipe makes enough for all 12 buns, so I saved half of it for later. All in all, the results were simply fantastic, and we're already looking forward to making them again and trying some different fillings. 

Ham Pasta

Comfort foods and family favorites have always been a major part of No Free Lunch. I've featured quite a few of my childhood favorites, like klub, hotdish, and chow fun, but this one comes from Ariel. It was a staple of her family and has been part of our rotation for years. Although I typically do most of our cooking, she's stepped up lately with how busy I've been. This recipe has been an invaluable go-to dinner for us. It's quick and easy, and perfect for a busy weeknight.

What we call "ham pasta" is a variant of an American-style pasta alla carbonara, which adds cream and vegetables to the Italian classic. This is a great example of how foods change and evolve as they move around the world. There's definitely room for both versions. I've actually only made this dish once, and it didn't exactly go over well when I substituted the ham for turkey ham. That being said, this recipe is pretty loose and most of the amounts listed here can be adjusted to taste. 

Thanksgiving for Two (Stuffing/Dressing Recipe)

2020 has been an unprecedented year in so many ways. Thanksgiving, which typically sees the highest volume of travel all year, has been particularly emblematic of how this pandemic has changed how we live our lives. Yet, there is still much to be thankful for in my life, not the least of which is the resurgence of this blog. With this 75th post of 2020, this year surpasses 2012 as the most productive year of No Free Lunch. Like many people, we stayed home for Thanksgiving but still put together a traditional feast for just the two of us. In a way it was a nice to give Thanksgiving a test run with just us before we host one day. It turned out to be a silly amount of food, but there's nothing wrong with having leftovers for a few days. In this post, I'll talk about what we had with a focus on the most iconic of Thanksgiving side dishes. 

I am, of course, talking about "stuffing," also known as "dressing." Despite the name, it's typically made in a casserole dish instead of inside a turkey. This is both safer and allows for making as much as you want. We definitely overdid it a bit and made enough for a whole family. In retrospect, we could easily have halved it and still had plenty of leftovers. Our version was loosely inspired by Kenji's recipe and Adam Ragusea's video on the topic. 

With just the two of us, I roasted a whole chicken rather than a turkey. It's not something I do often and don't yet have a lot of confidence. The age-old difficulty with a whole chicken (or turkey, for that matter) is that the breast is best at a much lower temperature than the thighs and legs. I tried Ragusea's method of cooking the chicken breast up on the stove before moving it to the oven. This was much simpler than other methods (like spatchcocking) and did the job well. This also makes it very easy to make a quick and delicious gravy in the same pan. 

We rounded out the dinner with Michael Solomonov's kale and apple salad. Ariel first made this to go with our brisket for Rosh Hashanah this year and it quickly became a family favorite. 

Of course, no Wai family Thanksgiving could be complete without party salad! It's a true Upper Midwest treat. Ariel even talked her parents into adding it to their table this year. As I hear, it went over well. I hope everyone was able to make the best of these unusual circumstances and celebrate in a safe way that will enable people to come together next year. Cheers, and happy Thanksgiving!

Steamed Egg with Shrimp (蝦仁蒸蛋)

I'm back today with another take on a Pei Mei recipe, this time from volume II. Steamed egg is a Chinese homestyle classic, but one with which I don't personally have much history. I think I've had it a few times, many years ago. It's certainly unlike anything else I've cooked in recent memory. The texture is silky smooth and the whole bowl jiggles like Jell-O. It's basically a savory custard, which isn't a common thing in Western cuisine. The name of the dish in Chinese is xiaren zhengdan, which translates to "shrimp meat steamed egg." 

As this is unlike anything I've cooked before, I stuck fairly close to Pei Mei's recipe. I did consult a few other sources, including Souped Up Recipes and the Woks of Life. The cooking time is the trickiest part here. Pei Mei says to steam on high for 2 minutes and low for 20 minutes. After about 10 minutes on low, I checked the eggs and they were still completely raw. I then turned it back up, so in the recipe, I'm recommending staying on high for about 9 minutes. I added the shrimp only for the last 3, to make sure they didn't get overcooked.

I used my homemade Chinese shrimp stock to pair with the shrimp on top. This gave the eggs a subtle shrimp flavor, which was quite pleasant. Chicken stock, again in the Chinese style, would also work well, I think. There are many variations to this dish, with different toppings and flavorings. I'm definitely going to try it again and play around with it more. I served with rice and stir-fried broccoli to round out a perfect meal for two.