Our Asian Inspired 4th. of July

Happy Independence Day!

On this particular July 4th. we wanted to do something a bit different.

We always seemed to eat the same foods each year, over and over again. Those classic and traditional foods are wonderful, but they only represented one cultural side of our country. We wanted to imagine 4th. foods that another residential culture of our country may create. Which is why this meal is something similar, yet different.

Hereby, I present to you….

Our Asian Inspired 4th. of July

Gordon Being His Usual Goofy Self 🙂

We Also Wanted to Make This as Easy as Possible

We Love the Asian Cultures and Their Foods

If you look at our table we have BBQ Sandwiches, Slaw, Mustard, Pickles, and even Tea.

(Except these BBQ Sandwiches are Char Sui Pork on Steamed Buns, Asian Coleslaw, Hot Chinese Mustard, and they may not be Dill Pickles but we do have some other pickled foods to add to our meal, and even some Hot Tea. Not our usual Southern Iced Tea, but still.)

————————————————————-

Having Our Bamboo Be Our Backdrop

(We are actually outside under a canopy in our backyard while a tropical storm is going on. Hey, we just depict our lives in our website and sometimes the weather does not cooperate. I was even too afraid to turn on the paper lantern for fear of electrocution.)

———————————————————————

FIREWORKS

I’ve Always Loved Sparklers

———————————————————-

Enjoy The 4th.

————————————————-

Gordon Creating Bok Choy Soup in our Kitchen

Bok Choy Soup

Although we don’t have the Bok Choy pictured above on our outside 4th. table, it was a part of our 4th. meal.

Excellent with a bit of Seaweed

————————————————————————

Our Asian Steamed Buns and Pickled Foods

Some of my Pretty Asian Vintage Tableware

To Serve our Pickled Foods In

Asian Coleslaw with a Vinaigrette

Char Sui BBQ on a Steamed Bun with Hot Chinese Mustard

Char Sui Pork BBQ with our Asian Coleslaw

Great Lunch the Following Day

———————————————————————

Gordon Made the Best Vinaigrette for the Asian Coleslaw

——————————————————————

Next Day Breakfast Leftovers

Our Toasted Asian Steamed Buns with a Fried Egg, Swiss Cheese, and Tocino Pork.

Look for the Tocino Pork in the Frozen Foods Asian section of your local grocery stores.

(I just wanted to add that we don’t follow the package directions on cooking this delicious pork. We place it on a baking sheet and put it in a 400F oven for about 15 minutes, each side. I do advise that you watch to make sure it is to your desired doneness.)

This one is MINE! Just an Egg, Tocino Pork, Hot Chinese Mustard, and my Toasted Steamed Bun.

————————————————————-

Grilling in a Tropical Storm

(Nothing Stops Us From Grilling Good Food!) 🙂

This is actually an extension of our 4th. After all, we have that great Asian Coleslaw leftovers with Hot Chinese Mustard, and the great pickles that are leftover.

We have two sets of sausages here. The long ones are the best I have ever tasted! They are Asian. I can’t even remember the name of them. We bought them at our Asian Supermarket though. I promise that I will get the name of them soon and tell you here. The other is a Sweet and Smokey. Both are delicious!

Straight From the Grill

Toasted The Sesame Seed Buns as Well

Served With our Asian Coleslaw and some of the Pickles

..and a few Rice Crackers

————————————————————

As always, we give you the recipe’s.

No matter what culture or heritage that you are, if you live here then we are all American.

It’s great to share our foods, our culture, and all of our American heritage.

Happy Independence Day to ALL Americans!

Julie and Gordon

————————————————————–

Recipes Start Here

——————————————————

Making The Char Siu Pork For The 4th.

(A different kind of BBQ Sandwich.)

First Step: Making the Marinade

Make this recipe twice as you will use it as a marinade, and as a glaze when broiling the meat.

Ingredients:

—————————————————————

THE MARINADE

(This is what you want to double.)

3 Tbsp. Dark Brown Sugar

1/4 Cup Honey

1/4 Cup Hoisin Sauce

2 Tbsp. Soy Sauce

2 Tbsp. Chinese Five Spice Powder

1 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil

2 Tbsp. Molasses

1 Tbsp. Chinese Rice Cooking Wine

1 Tbsp. Oyster Sauce

1/4 tsp. White Pepper

1/4 tsp. Powdered Ginger

2 Tbsp. Sesame Oil

2 Tbsp. Red Bean Curd

~15 Drops Red Food Coloring – Add more until you get the desired color

———————————————————

For Cooking The Meat

2 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil for the Dutch Oven

1/2 Yellow Onion – Small Dice

5 Garlic Cloves-Minced

Fresh Ginger – (About the size of your thumb) Minced

8 1/4 Lbs. Pork Shoulder/Butt

———————————————-

This mixture will stain your clothes, so wear an apron!

Using a large bowl, add your ingredient starting with the Brown Sugar.

TIP: Before measuring out your honey, spray the measuring cup with a little cooking oil. This will ensure the honey doesn’t stick to it. Add your honey to the bowl.

This brand of Hoisin Sauce is our favorite as it really tastes good. Adding it to the bowl.

Here is how the ingredients look so far!

Now, add your Soy Sauce. This is again our favorite brand as it is made in Hawaii. It isn’t too salty, and simply tastes good, and doesn’t have a winy taste like Kikkoman does. I never use Kikkoman.

Then add your Chinese Five Spice to the mixture.

Then add 1 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil.

Then add your Molasses…

Still looking good!

Then add your Chinese Rice Cooking Wine to the bowl.

Now your Oyster Sauce. This too is another good tasting brand I like to use.

Add your Ground White Pepper to the mixture.

And then your Powdered Ginger.

And now your Sesame Oil.

And then your Red Bean Curd.

This ingredient really gives the marinade that Char Siu flavoring.

Delicious Goo!

Use a whisk to mix all the ingredients well.

This recipe will give you about 1 1/2 Cups of marinade. Taste the mixture and see if you like it, adding any more of any one ingredient to adjust the seasoning to your liking. I loved the taste, so I poured it into a seal-able container for later use. This will also let the ingredients blend together. Again, make this recipe twice as you will use it as a marinade and as a glaze when broiling the meat shown later.

————————————————————————–

Pictured above are the ingredients (Onion, Garlic, and Ginger) I will add to the meat and marinade when I begin to cook them.

Here, I am getting those mentioned ingredients ready to be minced.

The marinade above I made the day before and kept in the refrigerator overnight.

So, the following day I was ready to add the Red Food Coloring. If you added it before when tasting it, your tongue would become very red.

I placed a few drops in the container, then I add the marinade to a bowl and add a few more drops until I got the color I wanted.

Whisk the ingredients well.

You can see the beautiful red I achieved on the side of the bowl.

————————————————————————

Slice your onion in half then into thin slices as shown.

Slice the onion into a small dice.

Here, you can purchase a ready made packet of the sauce if you wanted to, but making your own is so much better.

——————————————————————-

TIP: Wet your knife before slicing garlic to keep the slices from sticking so much to your blade.

Slice, then mince your Garlic as shown.

TIP: Use a spoon to remove the outer ginger’s skin. Then slice your ginger and mince it.

Set Aside The Onion, Garlic and Ginger…..

—————————————————————–

Here is the Pork Shoulder/Butt that I used.

Remove the meat from the packaging and rinse with water to clean off the old blood and bone fragments.

The Pork Shoulder has a fat cap on it which needs to be mostly removed. Yes, fat is flavor, but not in this case as we want mainly the meat. Trust me, there is still plenty of fat in the cut of meat.

Here is the fat I cut off.

Now, slice the meat into smaller sections for easier marinating and then cooking.

Here you can see there is still plenty of fat within the meat.

————————————————————————–

Place the meat into strong freezer bags and pour the marinade evenly over it as shown.

With the bags sealed, mix the marinade around the meat with your hands in order to coat. Open the bag back up, move the meat to the bottom of the bag, then fold over the top of the bag removing the air. Seal the bag and lift it up… your bag should be basically vacuumed sealed as shown in the above left picture. Doing this will help to push the marinade into the meat. Let the meat marinade in the refrigerator in a large bowl for at least 24 hours or up to 48 hours. The bowl will prevent any leaking bag from messing up your refrigerator.

————————————————————————-

The Following Day

We let the pork marinate for 24 hours overnight.

———————————————————————-

We split our marinaded cuts of pork between our slow cooker and our cast-iron Dutch oven.

Place half the pork in the Slow Cooker as shown…

—————————————————————-

…and sprinkle half of your chopped onion, garlic, and ginger over the meat.

——————————————————-

Add about half a cup of water over the meat to help the pork braise in the juices.

Turn the Slow Cooker on High for Four hours.

——————————————————————-

Now For The Dutch Oven

Turn Your Oven to 400F

Pour about 2 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil into the Dutch oven to keep the meat from sticking.

Then just as before …

…add the remaining onion, garlic, and ginger to the pork.

Add about 1/2 Cup of water to the Dutch Oven to braise the meat.

Now place into the 400F oven for about 4 hours.

You can check the meat before then to make sure it is cooking nicely.

———————————————————————-

The Slow Cooker

Here, you can see the meat is cooking in the slow cooker.

When the four hours are done, the meat will look like this.

Remove the meat with tongs and drain in a colander.

Doesn’t it Look Delicious?

————————————————————–

Time to Char the Meat

Place a cooling rack on a sheet pan lined with aluminum foil. Place the cooked chunks of meat on top of the cooling rack.

Now Turn Your Broiler to High

Using your broiler, cook the meat until just a little char begins, and remove the meat from the oven.

Brush your marinade over the meat until every piece is covered.

(Remember, you made 2 batches of the marinade earlier. One to marinate and cook the meat in, and now the 2nd. batch to use as a sauce to brush on to the meat like a BBQ sauce.)

Coat Very Well

Place your meat back under the broiler and cook until it starts to brown.

———————————————————————-

You can see the meat turning that nice char color.

Turn the meat over …

…and brush this side with the marinade, then broil the meat again until is browns.

When it is cooked to your desired look, set it aside to cool.

—————————————————————

Dutch Oven Pork is Ready

———————————————————-

When cooked it will look like this!

Here is the Dutch Oven alongside the pot and steamer we will use later for our Steamed Buns.

Remove the meat with tongs and drain in a colander.

You want to do the same thing we did above. This is just another way to cook the pork. Some people prefer a slow cooker/crock pot, and other’s prefer oven cooking. We like both!

——————————————————————————

Again, brush your marinade over all the meat.

Broil the meat on both sides as before… it looks great!

——————————————————————————–

Making The Dough

Now, we are going to make the dough for the Char Su Pork Sandwiches.

———————————————-

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp. Rapid Rise Instant Yeast

6 Cups Flour – sifted

~1 1/2 Tbsp. Peanut Oil

1/4 Cup Turbinado Sugar

4 tsp. Baking Powder

3/4 tsp. Salt

2 Cups Water at a temperature just a few degrees less than 110′ F

~1 Tbsp. Sesame Oil

——————————————————-

A digital thermometer is best to check the temperature of the water.

Here I am using the microwave to heat the water.

Measure the flour well.

Sift the flour into a larger bowl to remove any clumps and makes a lighter dough.

————————————————————

Gently move the sifter back and forth to sift the flour.

Here you can see how much lighter the flour is after being sifted.

Add your sugar to the bowl.

Add your baking powder and then your Peanut Oil to the bowl.

———————————————————————

When your water is a temperature, add it to the bowl.

Use your clean hands to mix all the ingredients together as shown.

—————————————————————

In just a short time, the dough will come together. Kneed the dough for a while to build the gluten within the dough. You can tell when it is done when the dough feels soft to the touch and is very elastic.

Using the same bowl, add a tablespoon or more of Sesame Oil around the bowl and all over the dough. This is done to allow the dough to rise without resistance in the bowl. You could use any type of oil, but I chose sesame oil to impart the Asian flavor into the dough.

Here you can see I am using the dough to help move the oil around the bowl. Use plastic wrap to cover the bowl tightly and place the dough in a warm spot for about an hour, or until it doubles in size.

—————————————————————-

Cute Doggie Break

(Blankets nice and warm and fresh from the dryer.) 🙂

————————————————————–

After the dough has risen, take some flour in your hand and toss it over a clean working surface.

Here is the dough… soft and spongy.

I formed the dough into a long round shape.

Now, evenly slice the dough into sections.

Place the dough sections onto sheet pans and cover with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise again for about an hour.

Here is our large pot of boiling water and our bamboo steamer

Place your dough rounds onto parchment paper squares within a section of the steamer.

Do this for all the sections of your steamer.

When your water is boiling, Place the bamboo steamer on top of the pot of boiling water.

Steam the buns for about 10 min. or until they are fully cooked. You can see I only placed three in each section as they grew in sized during the cooking process. Use a sharp knife to slice the buns in half to then load up with your Char Siu Pork!

Oriental HOT Mustard

(Comes in powder, just add water.)

A nice condiment for our sandwiches.

——————————————————–

Our Asian Slaw

Ingredients:

1/2 Savoy Cabbage – thinly sliced

1/2 Red Cabbage – thinly sliced

1 Cup Carrot Sticks

1/2 Cup Crinkle Cut Carrots

1/2 Cup Red Onions – sliced thinly

2 Green Onions – sliced

1 Anaheim Pepper

Snow Peas

1 Can Water Chestnuts

Sesame Oil

Mirin Sweet Cooking Rice Seasoning

——————————————————-

Start by cutting the Savoy Cabbage in half, then slice diagonally down the sides of the core as shown.

Remove the core…

then slice the cabbage thinly as shown.

Do the same procedure with the Red Cabbage and add both the Red and Savoy Cabbage to a large bowl.

Add your Red Onions and Carrot Sticks to the bowl and mix all the ingredients with you hands.

Here I had to transfer the ingredients to a larger bowl.

Slice the root ends of the Green Onions off, then slice as many of the Green Onions as you need.

Add the Green Onions and Crinkle Cut Carrots to the bowl.

Slice your Anaheim Pepper in half and remove the seeds and stem, then slice the pepper as shown.

Add the Anaheim Pepper to the bowl with the other ingredients.

——————————————————–

The Vinaigrette For The Asian Slaw

Ingredients:

4 Garlic Cloves – minced

2 small Shallots – sliced thinly

2 Tbsp. Red Onion – sliced thinly

1 Tbsp. Rice Vinegar

1 Tbsp. “Aloha Brand” Soy Sauce

1 tsp. Fish Sauce

Juice of 2 Limes

~6 Tbsp. Peanut Oil

1/4 Cup Sugar in the Raw

1/2 tsp. Crushed Red Pepper Flakes

1 Tbsp. Aji-Mirin – Sweet Cooking Rice Seasoning

2 Tbsp. Sesame Oil

Fresh Ground Pepper to taste

1 Tbsp. Sugar in the Raw Syrup

1/4 Cup Sweet Soy Sauce

Sesame Seeds to your Liking

———————————————————–

————————————————————–

Peel your Shallots and Garlic.

Slice the Garlic as seen…

and add them to a medium sized jar with a lid.

Slice the Red Onions and Shallots thinly as shown…

and add them to the jar.

Now add your Rice Vinegar…

Soy Sauce and Fish Sauce to the jar.

This recipe needs no additional salt as the Soy and Fish sauces are salty enough.

Now add your Lime Juice …

then your Peanut Oil to the jar.

Add your “Carefully Measured” sugar to the jar. If you don’t have this type of sugar, you could add a Sweet Soy, Honey, Brown Sugar, White Sugar or any number of other sweeteners.

Add your Red Pepper Flakes to give the Vinaigrette a little heat.

I like to add this Mirin to a number of my Asian dishes which gives them a nice sweetness.

Sesame Oil is a must for most all Asian inspired things.

Add your freshly ground Black Pepper to the jar…

Place the lid on tightly and shake the jar to mix the ingredients well. Taste the Vinaigrette and add any additional seasoning you like. I felt it needed a little more sweetness…

So I got some Sugar in the Raw Syrup….

then also added some Sweet Soy Sauce. This sauce is so sweet you could add it to your French Toast or Pancakes and nobody would be able to tell the difference.

Taste the Vinaigrette again until you get exactly the flavor the desire.

Shake the jar just before you add it to the Coleslaw.

Add some Sesame Seeds to give the Coleslaw even more Asian flavor!

————————————————————

Mix the Vinaigrette into the Cole Slaw with some decorative chop sticks and you are done!

Enjoy!

———————————————————————-

Two Bok Choy Pho Vietnamese Noodle Soups

Get the creative juices flowing! This soup is going to be all YOU!

Gordon is going to outline two nice recipes for making your own PHO.

You will control the amounts that you like and that suit your tastes. Gordon is just going to get you started.

A lot of the ingredients are already in the vegetable bins in your refrigerator.

These very good soups are great to make when you have a hodge-podge of vegetables that are leftover from other recipes. I made two as I wanted them to have varying looks and tastes. Basically, you heat some water and quickly add your vegetables, seasonings, noodles, and meats. Below are most of the ingredients I used to give you an idea to be creative with your own Pho. The amount of water needed will depend on the amount of ingredients you use as there should by about 85 percent ingredients to 15 percent liquid. Add the ingredients by how fast they cook. Root vegetables like carrots should be first, then onions, mushrooms, noodles, and green leafy vegetables are last. The noodles I used cook very fast. I didn’t use any meat but it would most likely be cooked before using them. They can all be added very quickly so the vegetables don’t overcook.

———————————————————–

Ingredients:

(Gordon’s Suggestions, You Decide)

3 Cups Chicken Broth per pot – add more if needed

Carrot Sticks or Wedges – I used wedges, multi-colored carrots, and carrot sticks

Red Onion – sliced thinly or chopped

Yellow Chives – sliced thinly or chopped into small pieces

Lemon Grass – sliced in half

Peeled and Sliced Ginger, as much as you like

Asparagus

Snow Peas

Oyster, Baby Bella, Ling Zhi Mushrooms

Shredded Zucchini

High Protein Tofu – sliced into diced sized pieces

Stir Fry and Pad Thai Noodle pkgs.

Bok Choy

1/4 Cup per pot of Soy Sauce

2 T. of Fish Sauce per pot

Water Chestnuts

Red Chili Pepper Flakes to taste

Green Onions – sliced on the bias

1-2 T. Dried Bonito Flakes

Seaweed Garnish

Garnish with Sesame Seeds

————————————————————–

Here we have all the washed vegetables we are going to use all laid out and ready.

The Bok Choy is so Cute

These are the pots we are going to use.

More ingredients to suit your taste.

(We ended up NOT using the Limes.)

———————————————————————

————————————————————————

Start by adding your Chicken Broth to each pot and turn to medium heat. Then slice off the stiff woody ends of your Asparagus and add to one pot the sliced Orange Carrot rounds.

Here I am slicing the Rainbow Carrots in half.

Add the sliced carrots into the other pot.

Here are the Dried Bonito Flakes we used.

This gives the soup a great depth of flavor.

Although hard to see, this package has smaller packets inside of it. You will only need to use one packet in the two pots we have cooking. Not one packet per pot. One packet halved into each pot.

Here is the Lemon Grass which I sliced in half to release the flavor.

Add a half slice of the Lemon Grass to each pot.

—————————————————————

Add water or more broth to the pot as needed.

Here I peeled and sliced a Red Onion in half then thinly cut off some slices.

Add a few Red Onion slices to one of the pots.

To add some salt and great flavor, add some Soy Sauce to each pot.

We love the Aloha Brand

Here I am peeling some fresh Garlic for the soup.

Slice it thinly or thickly to your tastes and add some to each pot.

Here are some Yellow Chives which I am slicing into small sized pieces.

Add some of your Orange Stick Carrots to one pot and Yellow Chives to both of the pots.

Here you can see the flavorful broth in each pot.

————————————————————

GINGER

Here is the best tool to use to remove the outer skin of the Ginger.

Here I am using the edge of the spoon to peel off the Ginger’s skin.

Now, slice the Ginger into thin wedges and add them to a pot.

Looks so Tranquil

Here are the Bonito Flakes and the Noodles we used.

You can add these near the end as they don’t take long to cook.

Here I have two pots on a slow boil with the different types of Carrots and Red Onions.

Once the water is boiling, you can turn the temperature down to a medium heat as you don’t want to overcook the ingredients.

Here I am adding some Asparagus to one of the pots.

I then added some Snow Peas to the other pot.

Here I am adding some Mushrooms to both pots.

———————————————————————–

This is the Tofu we used.

I sliced the Tofu in half then sliced it into diced size pieces.

Add the Tofu to one of the pots.

Here are some of the other Mushrooms I found at our local Asian Supermarket.

Give them a good cleaning and add them to the pot.

———————————————————————

Now for the Bok Choy. Slice it in half lengthwise, then add them to the pot.

———————————————————————

I brought the temperature up to a slight boil in order to cook the noodles which will go in next.

Here I am tasting the soups to see how much of the seasoning I will need.

We go through lots of spoons when we cook. 🙂

——————————————————————–

Pad Thai Rice Stick Noodles

I thought they were a little much so…

I sliced them in half and added them to each pot.

Here are I am adding some Bonito Flakes which are a great addition to most any soup.

Bonito Flakes are commonly used to make Japanese dashi broth, but they also go nicely in this soup.

(Remember, half the packet per pot.)

————————————————————————

Now for some Water Chestnuts.

———————————————————————————

Time to add the seasonings and a touch more of Aloha Soy Sauce.

I like to taste the soup as I go.

For a little heat we added these Chinese Chili Pepper Flakes.

These are an Asian brand but you can use regular hot pepper flakes.

Slice your Green Onions on the bias to give them a more fanciful look.

————————————————————————–

Fish Sauce is a nice salty flavor for this soup as a little goes a long way.

Again, taste as you go.

As you can see, all the above ingredients need to go in quickly so you don’t over cook the vegetables.

But if you do overcook them, they will just improve your soup as they release their flavor.

We used some Seaweed to garnish the soup which I thought was a nice touch to this Pho Soup.

Also a sprinkling of Sesame Seeds.

———————————————————

Next Day Breakfast Leftovers

Our Toasted Asian Steamed Buns with a Fried Egg, Swiss Cheese, and Tocino Pork.

Look for the Tocino Pork in the Frozen Foods Asian section of your local grocery stores.

This is a Breakfast Biscuit from the Philippines.

Baking In The Oven

Charred and Delicious!

Excellent With Our Steamed Buns and Hot Chinese Mustard

This one is MINE!

Just an Egg, Tocino Pork, Hot Chinese Mustard, and my Toasted Steamed Bun. 🙂

————————————————————————

If you would like to view our other Asian pages:

Click Here For: Whann Way Asian

AND,

Click Here For: Whann Way Asian, E Ho ‘Omau (Continues)

AND,

Click Here For: Julie Loves Asian

AND,

Click Here For: Asian Edible Gifts

AND,

Edible Gifts of the Asian Variety

(Note: Edible Gifts of the Asian Variety is the same post as Asian Edible Gifts. I have both listed here for accuracy, but one is a Page and the other is considered a Post. Confusing, I know.)

AND,

Click Here For: Our Asian Easter