Som Moo (Naem or Sour Pork Sausage)

I called my mom on Christmas Day.  I was on my way to the Asian grocery store.  She's coming to Denver in a few days and usually brings me goodies.  She was just in town over the Thanksgiving weekend and brought rambutans, guavas, seaweed, mangosteen, and other goodies.  When J* was in San Diego a few weeks ago she sent him back with a large bag of guavas for me and a bag of snickers for his plane ride.  While we were talking, my mom said that our Lao sausage guy passed away a few days ago.

He's the guy that we always got our sai krok and som moo from.  I didn't eat beef or pork for a long time.  I started eating pork but only in certain forms (when the flavor is hidden enough that it no longer tastes like pork).  I always brought back a few packages of sai krok and som moo.  The sai krok is the best I've ever had.  It's sour, garlicky, and lemongrass-y.  (Maybe I'll attempt making sai krok and lap cheong when I feel like dealing with the casings.) I never eat som moo by itself but I keep it around for nam khao.

One of my favorite Laotian dishes is nam khao.  A few years ago I was looking for a recipe on the net and I couldn't find one so I came up with something based solely on my memory of eating it. I've been told that my recipe is missing the red curry paste.  I think it tastes fine without.  One of the key ingredients for nam khao is som moo.  Now that my sausage guy has passed away, I must come up with a way to make my own or else settle for American ham doused with lime juice.

I looked at a few recipes.  I love the directions on the Lao Cook website so I followed the instructions but went with the seasoning recipe from Thai Food Master because he included sugar and MSG.  I made two batches -- one using just sticky rice and another using the nam powder I thought I used nam powder but I guess I threw away the actual sodium nitrite packet mistaking it for one of those oxygen absorber packets.

Please visit the Lao Cook and Thai Food Master websites for a recipe.

I started off with some pork. I bought these from the Asian store.  In hindsight I should I have bought a leaner pork loin and the frozen pork skin instead.

I trimmed the meat, saving the ski.  I boiled the skin and sliced them up.

I ground the meat user the grinder attachment on my Kitchenaid.  While I don't feel that it's the best meat grinder, it works for occasional meat grinding.  I had to cut the meat into small pieces to get it to fit the chute.  I bought my mom a stand alone meat grinder and took it with me to San Diego. It was surprisingly difficult to find a meat grinder in San Diego but almost every store in Denver carries it.  (Excuse the mess.  I was working on a few different cooking projects.)

I kneaded the meat using the dough hook of my Kitchenaid.  This can be done by hand but it takes a long time.

After kneading, I divided the meat into two batches.  The one below has the sticky rice.  (I didn't think I had enough pork skin but it was perfectly fine.  I should have trimmed off more of the fat.) I finished the kneading by hand after I mixed in the ingredients and the pork skin.

I wrapped the batches differently.  The one without the rice were wrapped smaller and has the chili on the outside.  The one with the rice were wrapped larger (I was a little tired by this time) and had chili in the middle (like how Lao Cook does it).

I ate the sausages (even the batch without the rice or the sodium nitrite) and I survived.

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Dutch Oven Pulled Pork

Sometimes when I go through my old food photos and recipe drafts, I end up finding something I meant to blog about but never got around to doing it. Below is one such recipe. I made this back in August.

I don't pretend to be the expert on barbecue. I grew up in San Diego and I'm Asian. Despite these facts, I think my pulled pork ain't bad. Well...at the very least I can tell you what I do and do not like in my limited barbecue experience. I like KC style barbecue sauces...a little sweet but not overly sweet like Sweet Baby Rays.

The barbecue sauce that I've been using lately is Head Country. It hails from Oklahoma. And yes, that's a 1 gallon jug of the sauce. One of my coworkers is from Oklahoma. She gave me a sample. I loved it so much, I ended up getting a gallon. Before I discovered Head, I really like the sauce from a local barbecue joint called Brothers BBQ. It is a nice thick sauce with a lot of celery seed flavor. Another sauce I buy is Famous Dave's Rich & Sassy. The other sauce in the squeeze bottle is a North Carolina vinegar sauce. The recipe is at the end of this post.

I'm using a dutch oven but I've successfully made this using a slow cooker. The next time I cook pork shoulder, I'm going to try a Hawaiian style Kalua pork using my stash of Alaea sea salt.

Dutch Oven Pulled Pork

6 to 8 pound Boston Butt or Pork Shoulder (mine was 6.38 pounds)
4 cups water
4 ounces pickling salt
2/3 cups molasses
2 bay leaves
your favorite rub (I'm using Savory Spice Shop's Red Rocks Hickory Smoke Seasoning)
your favorite barbecue and vinegar sauces (recipe below)
buns

1. Combine water, pickling salt, molasses, and bay leaves. Pour over pork and brine at least 8 hours or overnight. (Some people like to use extra large ziploc bags. My pork shoulder fit perfectly into one of my plastic beverage pitchers.)

2. Remove pork from brine and pat dry. Cover the entire pork shoulder with rub.

3. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

4. Heat a large dutch oven on stove. Sear the pork shoulder on all sides. Cover with a tight-fitting lid and place in preheated oven. Roast for 5 to 6 hours or until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees. Let meat rest about 30 minutes to 1 hour and then shred using two forks.

5. Moisten meat with some of drippings. Serve with barbecue and vinegar sauces.

Recipe in Photos:

Brine:


Rub:

Sear:

Roast:

Shred:

Moisten:

North Carolina Pulled Pork Vinegar Sauce

Ingredients:
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon ketchup
1 teaspoon Texas Pete’s Hot Sauce
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions:
Heat everything together to dissolve sugar. Store and serve in a squeeze bottle.

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Black Bean Soup

The weather in Denver has been a bit strange lately. It snowed last Wednesday and the temps are still pretty chilly. I had a ham bone tucked away in the back of my freezer so I decided to make a bean soup. I checked pantry to see what types of dried beans I had on hand. I went with black beans but this can really be made with your choice of beans or even split peas or lentils.

To soak or not to soak? The soaking of dried beans is a controversial subject. Some people do it and some people do not. The other question is: To salt or not to salt? I salt at the end because my mom said so. I personally like the quick hot soak method. I sort and rinse the beans, boil for few minutes, turn off the heat, let them sit about an hour and then another rinse.

Some people simply toss the beans in with the soup stock. I would recommend at least rinsing and scrubbing the beans first. Who knows what sort of grime is stuck on the exterior?

Another method I’ve read about is the oven method. It involves preheating the oven to a pretty low temp, bringing the beans to a boil on the stovetop and then 90 minutes in the oven.

Black Bean Soup

1 pound dried black beans
1 teaspoon oil
½ onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
¼ cup sofrito
¼ cup recaito
water
1 ham bone or 2 ham hocks or 1 smoked turkey drumstick, remove meat from the bone and set aside
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon cumin
¼ teaspoon Mexican oregano
salt
pepper
cilantro, chopped


1. Sort through beans and discard any debris or stones. Thoroughly wash beans with cold water. Transfer to a medium pot and cover 2 inches with water. Bring beans to a boil, boil 2-3 minutes and turn off heat. Allow to sit, covered for 1 hour.
2. Heat a medium dutch oven; add oil when hot. When oil is heated - add garlic and onions. Saute about a minute. Add sofrito and recaito. Saute another minute.
3. Drain and rinse soaked beans.
4. Add water, ham bone, beans and bay leaf to dutch oven. Bring to a boil and lower heat to a medium boil. Cook until beans are soft.
5. Remove ham bone. Add ham and season with salt, pepper, cumin and oregano. Serve with cilantro.

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Goi Cuon (Vietnamese Spring Rolls) with Peanut Hoisin Sauce

My friend made Goi Cuon (or Vietnamese Spring Rolls) for the baby shower the other weekend. I was amazed by the way she rolled them. She is a master goi cuon roller. They looked so professional. It is not surprising because her family owned/owns several restaurants and they make some of the best goi cuons in San Diego.

I watched her roll them the morning of the shower. She used 1½ skins for each roll. She had a stack of very large round skins and a stack skins that were cut in half. I asked her why she had the half circles. She told me that it is trick used to help the rolls stay fresh for several hours. The trick worked.

There is quite a bit of prep work that goes into making these rolls. It is an exercise in mise en place. Once everything is prepped, you can either roll them all or wait for your friends to come and everyone can roll their own. Rolling spring rolls is another exercise of self-control and moderation. One must possess enough self control to not over-stuff the rolls. It is tempting to want to jam-pack all the yummy ingredients in the roll but one must remember that we are making spring rolls and not burritos.

Ingredients for 20 large rolls:
30 extra large shrimp
1 pork loin, poached, and cut into thin slices (I don’t like pork in mine.)
1 head Green leaf lettuce, washed and torn into pieces
1 bunch cilantro
1 bunch mint, leaves only
2-3 cups bean sprouts
1/2 package vermicelli rice noodles
green onions or chives (I think this is optional. It makes the rolls pretty but I always pull it out before eating.
30 large rice paper wrappers

Mise en Place:

1. Shrimp – Put shrimp (with shells on) in a medium saucepan and cover with water. Add about 1 teaspoon sugar, 1 teaspoons vinegar and 2 teaspoons salt. Boil until pink. Drain and allow to cool. Once shrimp is cool, carefully remove the shells. (Also devein them. I buy already deveined shrimp.)
2. Poach pork loin, cool and then slice.
3. Mix lettuce, cilantro, mint and bean sprout. Wash and drain.
4. Boil vermicelli noodles.

Vermicelli Rice Noodles:

After cutting the shrimp, I arrange them to make it easier to use the same side shrimp for each roll.

I watched my friend roll them but I couldn’t remember so I emailed her. She responded using her phone. Her response is below.

"I cut the wrapper in half dry with scissors

place half sheet in middle of whole sheet, hold together and then wet

I always use the larger wrappers with the three girls on it (my fav wrapper it's hole proof lol)

I like all my veggie and meat on the edge close to me like 1/4 the ways up then line shrimp in front of veggie pile

roll bottom wrapper over pile just enough to enclose stuffing then sides one by one and finish rolling up

if it's unclear call me"

I'll do the assembly instructions using photos. (This is my interpretation of my friend's method. It is not her method.)

1. Count 10 wrappers and cut them in half. (You will need a total of 30 wrappers to make 20 rolls.)

2. Hold the half skin in front of the whole skin and dunk in warm water.

3. Place on large plate.


4. Arrange veggies and noodles centered on lower edge of skin. (This is also the time to add the sliced pork loin, if using.)

5. Roll up and arrange the shrimp pieces.

6. Fold the edges.

7. Tightly roll.

Peanut Hoisin Dipping Sauce

This is not my friend's recipe for peanut hoisin sauce. I got this recipe from an old coworker named Daisy. It is so yummy. I think some of my friends use the spring rolls as a peanut hoisin sauce delivery device.

I like to make the sauce (and prep the shrimp and vegetables) the night before.

Ingredients:
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon oil
1/2 cup hoisin sauce
1/2 cup peanut butter
MSG
1/2 cup water
Huy Fong Foods Chili Garlic Sauce (aka cock brand chili garlic sauce) - to taste

Method:
Heat a small saucepan over medium heat. Add oil and garlic. Cook until garlic is golden. Add the rest of the ingredients and allow to slowly melt together.

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Awesome Meatloaf

Ugh, I've haven't been around much to do any cooking or blogging. This last weekend was the ski/snowboarding trip in Breckenridge/Copper and I'm leaving for San Diego tomorrow evening.

I did manage to find pictures of this meatloaf I cooked sometime last week. I always make this meatloaf at night so the pictures are always terrible because of the terrible lighting.

Awesome Meatloaf

1/2 onion
2 carrots, peeled if you want
3 whole cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 red bell pepper, seeds removed
1 1/2 pounds ground chuck
1 1/2 pounds bulk pork italian sausage
3/4 cups bread crumbs (I use homemade bread crumbs that I toast is the oven and run through the food processor)
1 cup finely grated jack or mozzarella cheese
1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 eggs
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon anhco chile powder
1 teaspoon dried thyme

For glaze:
1/2 cup ketchup
Dash of Worcestershire sauce
Dash of tapatio hot sauce
1 tablespoon sugar

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees.

2. In the bowl of a food processor, combine onion, carrots, garlic and bell pepper. Pulse until the mixture is fine.

3. Place mixture in a large bowl, add the rest of the ingredients and gently combine thoroughly. Do not squeeze the meat mixture.

4. Divide the mixture and form two loaves. (You can use a loaf pan to shape the loaves.)

5. Line a baking sheet with non-stick aluminum foil or parchment paper. Place loaves on lined baking sheet. Place on center rack of preheated oven.

6. Combine the ingredients for the glaze. Brush the glaze on the loaves after they have been cooking for about 10 minutes.

7. Bake loaves until internal temperature reaches 155 degrees (about 1 to 1/2 hours).

8. Allow to stand for about 15 to 30 minutes before slicing.

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Yunnanese Khao Soi

This is not the more popular Chiang Mai style khao soi noodles – egg noodles in a curry sauce. This is the khao soi version that I grew up eating. Chiang Mai khao soi is said to have originated from versions from the Shan region of Burma and the Yunnan region of China. Learn more about the Khao Soi here.

Since my family is from Yunnan, I grew up eating this version. Unfortunately, I do not have a recipe. I’ve been meaning to learn from my aunt or grandma but haven’t gotten around to it.

The meat sauce is the base for the soup. It can last for months in the refrigerator or freezer. I'm not sure why the sauce doesn't go bad. Maybe because the liquid is completely removed during the cooking process or because the meat is suspended in oil or because of the special preservation properties of the fermented soy beans.

Khao Soi is a quick and delicious weeknight meal. I combine boiled rice noodles, boiling water, shredded cabbage, green onions, coriander leaves, soy sauce, fish sauce and a heaping spoonful of the meat sauce.

The sauce is usually made with pork but because I decided to stop eating red meat, my brother decided to stop eating pork and my sister decided to stop eating meat entirely, my grandmother made a ground chicken version of the sauce and even made a vegetarian version using chopped up mushrooms.

The sauce is made with ground pork, tomatoes, fermented soy beans, dried red chilies and a lot of oil. I think the key is to have really good fermented soy beans. Fermented soy beans is a real project that I have never attempted. I get jars of it from my grandmother or aunt.

This is the meat sauce. It is packed with tons of flavor.

You put all the ingredients in the bowl and then add the boiling water. I usually use green cabbage but the store was out so I bought the red cabbage instead.

I usually do my blog cooking during the weekends but this weekend was a bit hectic. On Saturday we went to Rockies Fest. The bf happened to score some tickets to this event. The event was awesome. I've seen a lot of Coors Field but with these tickets, we had access to rooms that even the media are not allowed to enter. I got tons of autographs. I even got Clint Barmes to autograph my baseball in red ink. (I was coached on the importance of color and placement of autographs.)

The diamond is covered in snow.

Todd Helton's stuff in the Rockies' Club House.

Tulo's stuff.

Ryan Spilborghs, answering a question during the interview session. One of my coworkers (who was part of the 2004 Olympic team) went to school with him at UC Santa Barbara. I really love the Rockies club. The guys are all very down to earth and they all seem to get along. I think my new favorite player is Dexter Fowler.

I took more pictures of more players, the batting cage, the umpire's area, the museum, the massage room and even the urinals in the visiting team's club house. Those pictures will be uploaded on my picasa page.

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Nam Khao Tod (Laotian Fried Rice Ball Salad)

A lot of the food I grew up eating is a mix of different Asian dishes from different regions in Asia. This particular dish is from Laos. When I was home during Christmas, we stopped by the Laotian food plaza and my sister ordered some Nam Khao Tod. I haven’t had this in years.

I remember making this dish with my aunt when I was very young. It was something that my family made every once in a while but since it was easier to order from a Laotian restaurant, we seldom made it ourselves. Sometimes I will go to a party and the host will serve trays of nam khao ordered from a restaurant. (I also love the trays of banh cuon that are also usually ordered for these events.)

A lot of Laotian food is a little too pungent for me but I do enjoy most of the dishes. The problem is I can never make it as tasty as my Laotian friends. The sour pork sausages in this dish can be a bit overwhelming for many Western palates. I didn’t tell the bf that the chewy noodle-like strands were boiled and sliced pork skin. (He is still alive and well.)

I’ve never made som moo sausages (soured pork) before because we always bought it from the store. If you’re lucky enough and live in a large city, you might be able to find it at your local Asian grocery store. If you can’t find the sausage and want to make your own, I think there is a mix sold by Lobo called Nam powder mix.

The Lao Cook website has video on their site with pretty detailed instructions. It doesn’t look like they used the powdered mix so I suppose it is possible to make it using natural fermentation. I’ve never tried this and am quite leery since it requires fermenting raw meat. The sour sausages I am using are from my aunt. I visited her last week and she gave me several varieties of homemade sausages. (She just bought a new meat grinder and sausage stuffer contraption.)

I have the sausage so it must not be very difficult to make the other components of this dish. Well not exactly. Unlike other Asian recipes, Laotian recipes are very difficult to find. I searched for recipes but mainly found blogs about people ordering this dish from a Laotian restaurant and are now searching for a recipe. One of the blogs I found featured Lao Champa restaurant in Oakland, California. I have eaten at this restaurant. My sister took the family there when we went to her graduation. Our server was one of her classmates. I remember it being very good but still the site did not have a recipe. I looked to Joy's Thai food site (because she usually makes both Thai and Thai Isaan recipes) for guidance and although she does have a recipe, it was very vague.

How difficult can this be? I know most Asian recipes are not measured using exact quantities so it should be very forgiving. In preparation for this recipe, I wrote down the ingredients I thought I needed and then I filled in the measurements as I cooked. I was working from the memory of my one and only experience making this and my memory of the tastes and textures of this dish. I tried my best to cook this, jot everything down and to photograph the steps. I wish I had a few extra sets of hands in the kitchen. It turned out very well. I am quite satisfied. Feel free to enlighten me if I failed to execute a crucial step or if I leave out a vital ingredient.

Rice balls:
3 ½ cups Jasmine rice
½ cups grated coconut
1 pound ground pork, chicken or turkey
2 eggs
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
MSG, to taste
Fish sauce, to taste
1 tablespoon sugar
Oil for frying

For the salad (Quantities are for one serving of three rice balls.)
¼ cup peanuts (use the raw, skin-on peanuts and toast them yourself)
1 stalk green onion, thinly sliced
5 sprigs coriander leaves, finely chopped
½ length (about 3 tablespoons) Som Moo (sour pork sausages), torn into small pieces
1 tablespoon fried shallots (I used the fried shallots sold in a little canister.)
juice from a wedge of lime

To serve:
Green leaf lettuce
Dried chili peppers, fried
lime wedges
coriander leaves

Mise en place:

1. Cook rice in rice cooker and allow to slightly cool.

2. Grate the coconut (if using fresh coconut). I used frozen grated coconut because it is much easier and for this recipe, the frozen stuff is fine. I just grated a fresh coconut yesterday but I’m saving it for a different recipe. Someone told me that they even made this with Baker’s sweetened coconut and it tasted fine. I think the recipe will also work with the unsweetened shredded coconut I use for coconut cupcakes.

3. Toast, peel and chop the peanuts. You will need about one to two cups for the entire batch. Raw peanuts can be found at Asian grocery stores. It will be labeled either “raw peanuts” or “red peanuts.” My mom used to toast the peanuts in a small frying pan but I find it easier in the oven. Once the peanuts are toasted, allow them to cool and then skin them by rubbing the peanuts between your fingers. I used to do this is the backyard. After rubbing the skins of the peanuts, I would blow the skins off the tray to get rid of them and leave only the heavier skinless peanuts. At this point, I would use a mortar and pestle to crush the peanuts but I don’t have one so I chopped them up with a knife.

Directions:

1. Mix together the cooked jasmine rice, grated coconut, ground meat, eggs, salt, pepper, MSG, fish sauce and sugar

2. Firmly pack the rice mixture into balls about 2 inches in diameter. (I actually make my “balls” into flat saucers in order to increase the surface area for frying. This way, I get more crunchy crust pieces.)

3. Working in batches, fry balls until dark golden brown in color.

4. When all rice balls are fried, toss in a few dried red chilies into the oil and fry for a few seconds, until fragrant. (I never eat the chilies so I omitted them.)

To assemble salad (You can mix up the entire batch or assemble serving size portions. The quantities above are for assembling a serving size portion of three rice balls.)

1. When balls are cool enough to handle, break the balls into smaller pieces.

2. Add chopped peanuts, green onions, coriander leaves, sour pork sausages, fried shallots and lime juice. Mix well.

3. Serve with lettuce, additional lime wedges and fried chili peppers.

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