Writing With My Mouth Full

Taiwanese-Style Breaded Pork Chops

I feel like my kitchen’s been neglected the last two weeks. It’s full-blown summer time and I haven’t been home early enough to make dinner during the week nor have I been in the city the past two weekends. When it was time to clean up the fridge and the pantry, I saw frozen pork chops in the freezer and some leafy green thing swimming in some sort of pickle juice which turned out to be preserved mustard greens. (I swear those are not the weirdest things you can find in my kitchen.) I honestly had no idea when I bought the pickles, but it didn’t look nor smell too bad when I cut the packaging open. I popped the chops and defrosted them in the microwave to prepare them for the only dish I can think of: breaded pork chops inspired by Excellent Pork Chop House, the restaurant across the Chinatown post office here in New York City.

When I used to work in Chinatown, it was one of our lunch spots. When I used to take the Fung-Wah bus to Boston back in the day to visit my friend, Mo!, for the Head of the Charles, I would hastily eat a bowl of Taiwanese pork chops with pickled mustard greens before boarding the long WiFi-less ride out of the city. A bowl with rice cost less than $5 and it was definitely better than the Popeye’s the other passengers ate on the bus. (Ah, Chinatown memories!)

Growing up in the Philippines, cornstarch was more familiar than flour. Breaded-anything used cornstarch; it also made Chinese-style sauces thicker. Cornstarch is so old school, it brings a smile to my face just thinking about it. It’s so old school, I smiled when I saw that I had a small container of it in my pantry. I can’t remember what I first bought it for but I was glad I had it for these pork chops because it’s always more feathery than flour for breading. (So okay, it might have gone past its expiration date, but it looked fine!) I wanted these chops to be lighter than fried chicken because I didn’t want to deep-fry; I merely wanted to pan-fry and cook the meat through by pressing on them with my cast iron grill press.

I served the chops by slicing them in thick strips after letting them rest, but not cutting all the way through so I could fan them before placing them on top of the rice. The mustard greens went on the side with the last of my pickled ramps. A quick splash of the frying oil and pickle juice on the rice completed the whole setup.

Ingredients:
4 tbsps soy sauce
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tbsps sugar
a splash of white wine
4 tbsps five-spice powder
8 bone-in pork chops
cornstarch
peanut oil

1. In a large glass bowl, combine all the ingredients except the pork chops, cornstarch and oil. Mix together until the sugar and spices are completely dissolved. Marinate the pork chops for a couple of hours or overnight, turning them to make sure both sides are coated with the marinade.
2. When ready to fry, remove the pork chops from the marinade onto a plate. Using a small sieve, sprinkle a few taps of cornstarch on each pork chop with one hand while shaking off excess with the other so as not to make the coating too thick. Do this for the other side of the chops.
3. Heat some peanut oil in a large skillet. Add the breaded pork chops. Put the cast iron grill press on top to keep them flat. Turn chops once and cook until both sides are golden brown and the meat is cooked through. Remove to a strainer on a plate and let rest for 5 minutes. Slice in thick strips without cutting all the way through so you can fan each chop on top of a bowl of hot rice. Serve with pickled mustard greens.

Roasted Lamb Shank

Am I bummed that my apartment building won’t let me grill out on my terrace? Of course I am! Recipes like this make me wish I can just step out and put a nice piece of meat on the grill even if it’s just dinner for one. But alas, I don’t get everything I want, so I have to settle for a hot oven inside my home during the summer.

Shank is the portion of meat beneath the knee. There’s a lot of movement in that part of an animal, so its meat is sinewy. Braising is the way to go to soften it, but I didn’t want the oven on too hot too long and decided to roast it instead. I cooked the shank 75 degrees lower than I normally would when roasting and I went past 45 minutes until the meat passed my medium-rare finger test. (Gently press the tip of your middle finger to the tip of your thumb. Feel the fleshy area between the thumb and the base of the palm. That’s how the meat should feel like when it’s medium rare.)

Shave off the lamb meat from the bone and serve with mint sauce. Store the remaining meat in a container in the fridge–it will keep for a few days to a week. When ready to eat the leftovers, toss with salad greens, some grape tomatoes and drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

Ingredients:
1 lamb shank
sprigs of rosemary
6 cloves of garlic, minced
1 small knob of butter
salt
pepper
oil

1. Preheat your oven to 300º. In the meantime, use a small knife to create small slits around the lamb shank. Stuff the slits, or pockets, with small pieces of butter, rosemary and garlic. Using cooking twine, tie up the shank at 1-inch intervals to hold its shape while roasting.
2. Brush the shank with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
3. Roast in the oven for about 1 hour. Remove to a chopping block and let rest for 20 minutes. Carve to serve.

Sud de France’s Wine Lover’s Dinner at the James Beard House

After biking my third Century, I cleared my calendar the following week and stayed out of the gym and off my bike. I wanted a whole week where I can just veg and chill. I was on my way to the new extension of the High Line when Nate emailed me about a last-minute invitation to Sud de Franceâ€™s Wine Loverâ€™s Dinner at the James Beard House. How do you say no to that? I had 15 minutes to run to the west Village so I moved my sore legs as fast as I can and just recomposed myself as soon as I stepped in the townhouse.

It was a warm summer night in New York Cityâ€”one of those nights that make you fall in love with the city again even after 18 years of a steady love-hate relationship. A chilled glass of Antech Blanquette de Limoux Brut in my hand helped, of course. I sat in the garden and watched the other guests until we all had to move indoors and take our seats. I was seated under the glassed roof with eleven other people. I used to not do well eating alone, but I’ve since learned to enjoy the moment and languish on being on my own, especially if it means meeting new people with the same interest; in this case, a love for food and wine. The gamble is being seated with guests who have no qualms about picking up their ringing cell phones and actually carrying on with their one-sided conversations. One guest at our table had to finally ask the quatro to my right to remain quiet while someone was introducing the chefs to the rest of the house.

Sud de France invited Chef Charles Fontès of Montpellier, France, to cook for the guests with the help of Daniel Bouludâ€™s Feast & Fetes Catering chef, Cédric Tovar. (Some of the best wedding h’ordeuvres I’ve had were from them, and boy, I’ve been to a lot of weddings.) The chefs met for the first time the day before and they found out they actually grew up in the same neighborhood! Funny that; this city always brings people together–the second reason why I canâ€™t stay away from this place. Everyone seemed like they were in a good mood; the townhouse was abuzz and it even got too loud that I struggled to listen to the wine descriptions. There was a separate table in the entry hall plus a few more upstairs that were not viewable from where I sat next to the kitchen. They were awkwardly set, but how else do you accommodate all the paying guests in a townhouse-cum-restaurant? I was a bit taken aback that the servers stacked up plates every time they removed them from our table. I expect that from a Chinese restaurant, and perhaps from a smaller establishment, but not from the James Beard House.

An oyster appetizer in seawater gelée was fun to eat and looked so pretty on the plate with a small piece of zucchini stuffed with braised lamb, mint and almonds. The two small items were completed by a shot of tomato-basil velouté with small chunks of roasted eggplant–“eggplant royale” on the menu, natch. The zucchini ravioli for the second course fared much better for me, served with asparagus and beautiful morels in, gasp, tarragon-oil foam! Just when I thought Iâ€™ve seen the end of foams on dinner plates! A very memorable 2010 Domaine La Bastide Viognier perfectly complemented the asparagus. If I took home anything from the nightâ€™s event, it’s the fact that Viognier is now my favorite warm weather white wine.

A seared scallop was the third course with a slice of avocado in grapefruit vinaigrette. I felt like the dressing didnâ€™t match the soft avocado. The glass of 2008 Toques et Clochers Haute Vallée Limoux Blanc familiarly tasted like a California Chardonnay which was later confirmed because the grapes grow in a similar terroir as the Napa Valley. The striped bass, an already mild fish, could have used a heavier salt hand, though the bouillabaisse jus reminded me of those meals Iâ€™ve had by the Mediterranean. (Too fishy, the lady to my left said, as she pushed her plate away from her.) The duo of braised beef cheek–described as brisket by the same lady–and roasted tenderloin was delicious with the glass of the 2008 Château D’Aupilhac Montpeyroux and all its black cherry-ness. A nice panisse was warm and crisp and complemented the different textures of the dish. A bowl of (sautéed) cherries–ha!–with verbana ice cream and a delicate pistachio-orange tuile ended the evening’s event.

Chef Charles Fontès, as you can imagine, cooks in Montpellier using the freshest ingredients from the farms surrounding the La Reserve Rimbaud restaurant. Unfortunately, being far away from his original setting didnâ€™t translate quite well, so I was glad the wines paired with each dish more than made up for the food’s shortcomings. It was a wine lover’s dinner after all, not a food lover’s dinner.

Summer Ceviche with Watermelon, Cucumber, Tomatoes

The last time I was in the Philippines was in 2008 for my brother’s wedding. I had been traveling to learn how to surf in the southern part of the country before the festivities and then had to travel up north to fulfill familial obligations right after. On our way to my father’s hometown of Ilocos Sur, my parents and I stopped at the Santa Cruz wet market to buy ingredients for that night’s dinner and provisions for the next few days. All the produce were incredibly fresh and I realized how much I missed the Filipino fruits and vegetables I don’t get to buy in New York City. I watched my dad as he negotiated and haggled with the sellers in his native dialect while I took photographs of the market’s different colors. I had to catch my breath when I saw how fresh the yellowtail fish were. Each fish cost roughly US$3 and my father had to hold me back from squealing in excitement so as not to get a higher price quote from the market ladies. They always say that you have to check for clear eyes when you buy fish to see how fresh they are. Can these be any more fresh?

When we arrived at my father’s family’s house, I had to follow the fresh fish to the kitchen to make sure that no one tries to cook them. Filipinos love their deep-fried anything, and not even fish with super clear eyes will stop them from cooking them. One of my cousins’ wife was in charge of the kitchen and I made her swear not to cook the fish and to fillet all of them right away to make kilawin, or Filipino ceviche.

My dad’s famous ceviche recipe requires a very pungent vinegar locally made in his hometown. I wanted to recreate it here in New York even without that very important ingredient. There is a white coconut vinegar available in Chinatown, but for my version, I used fresh lime juice and cured the fish for 15 minutes while I prepped the other ingredients.

I was trying to avoid turning on the stove or the oven during the heatwave and this dish came to mind after I harvested the second batch of greens from my garden. You can skip the greens here, but crunchy and chilled Persian cucumbers are a must. Sweet watermelons are aplenty in Harlem right now–I bought mine from the back of a truck parked on 147th Street.

It goes without saying that you absolutely need fresh fish here, so make sure you buy sushi-grade quality from a reputable fish monger. I used striped bass because that’s what looked the most fresh, but a thicker cut of halibut for double the price would have been more heavenly.

Ingredients:
fillet from 1 striped bass, patted dry with paper towels, cut in cubes
juice from 2 limes
1 small jalapeño pepper, thinly sliced
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
salt
pepper
watermelon, chopped into cubes
cherry tomatoes, halved
2 Persian cucumbers, chopped into cubes
a handful of salad greens
a handful of cilantro, finely chopped
oil

1. In a glass bowl, cure the fish fillet. Mix the fish cubes with the lime juice, jalapeño and onion with some salt and pepper. Cure for 15 minutes in the fridge. Stir every 5 minutes to make sure the fish is well-covered.
2. While curing, combine the watermelon, tomatoes, cucumbers, salad greens and cilantro in a salad bowl. Toss with oil and season with salt and pepper.
3. The fish is cured if they look white and “cooked”. Divide fish among shallow serving bowls and toss gently with the vegetables. Drizzle with some of the fish-lime juice dressing.

Fish-Lime Masala

What did people ever do before the freezer? It was time to clean the fridge over the weekend and I was surprised to see a package of frozen Swai fish fillets. I called my dad and he told me he brought them one time I invited them over for dinner in the hopes that I would cook them, but I already had a meal ready so he just stored them in my freezer. I thawed them and left the apartment to run errands. When I came home famished, I dried the fish with paper towels and marinated them until I could no longer stand my rumbling stomach. While the rice was cooking, I prepped the rest of the ingredients. Garlic paste will work best here, but you can just mince a whole head of garlic as substitute. (There’s no reason for less garlic, is there?) Make sure you fry all the spices in very hot oil for the best flavor. If it can be helped, don’t use dried curry leaves. The fresh ones fry so awesomely.

Ingredients:
2 fillets of Swai, or any white fish, patted dry with paper towel
2 tbsps turmeric
2 tbsps red chili powder
salt
oil
1 red onion, thinly sliced
8 cloves of garlic, minced
10 fresh curry leaves
1 lime, juice and zest

1. Marinate the fish for several minutes. Sprinkle turmeric, red chili powder and salt on both sides of the fillets. Set aside until ready to cook.
2. Heat oil in a large skillet. When oil starts to smoke, sauté the onions and cook until light brown. Add garlic and cook until golden. Add the curry leaves to crisp.
3. Move the spices to the side of the skillet and add a little bit more of oil until hot. Fry the fish for 4 minutes on one side. Feel free to move the spices on top of the fish if you need more room. Gently flip the fish using a spatula and fry the other side for another 4. Squeeze lemon juice and sprinkle with zest before serving.