Delicious & Dragons

Same dessert, slightly different take, also good.

As a final bit of the pulled pork and kimchi combination this one is a mashup with Vietnamese Banh Xeo – rice flour crepes that you serve with lettuce and dipping sauce. Tasty, but not quite happy with the dough or my technique, the crepes should have turned out thinner crispier than that.

I don’t know what that says about me that I end up making dessert that looks like gravelly soil, but here it is. It’s leftover caramelized white chocolate that I mixed with molten sugar and dusted with cocoa powder to produce these crunchy crumbs with a mix of cocoa and white chocolate taste. The stuff itself is rather sweet, so the big question was to find something that balances it out. I tried a low sugar cocoa cake brushed with a mix of whisky and orange bitters, a layer of Greek yogurt and a scoop of pistachio gelato on top. Pretty good, even if I could probably tweak the balance of the elements until the cows come home.

Just tweaking the formula a bit. I find that a dash of yellow mustard is pretty sublime in this.

Curse it, I overtoasted the bun a bit. Eh, the rest was pretty good though. Pulled pork served in a bun with kimchi scallion mayo and lettuce.

Because if I called it paella the Spanish inquisition would descend upon me with a swiftness that would rival a hasted tabaxi monk. This was actually slightly inspired by kimchi fried rice, so I took some leftover sauce from the pulled pork, pickling liquid from the kimchi and used that as a flavor base to cook the rice in. Served with some roasted zucchini. Much to my dismay I undercooked the rice, but the basic idea of cooking rice paella style is worth exploring further, because the bits that were right were really tasty.

Occupational hazard of handling molten hot sugar aside, this one is a nice treat to make use of the power of baking soda. Just dump a teaspoon into the caramel and watch it go. Then pour it like some delicious lava with scents of toasted nuts, butter and vanilla and watch it slowly solidify into a candy.

When you are undecided whether to make gyoza or bao, why not make something in between and crisp up the bao in a pan at the end of steaming? Bao plainly steamed are delicious as it is, but this makes for a nice variation of texture.

Alliterations aside, this was interesting to try. Rather than your usual brioche or potato buns baking larger pão de queijo and putting some pulled pork in between. The chewiness of the buns is unusual and it’s kinda tasty, but I don’t think I’ve hit the right balance of ingredients just yet. Could definitely use more pork, maybe a touch of crème fraîche for some freshness.

Update: I tinkered with ingredients, a bit of sour cream and mustard, more pork, some cucumber slices and lo, it really made for a better sandwich that has a nice balance of tastes and textures going on. Yay.

I hadn’t done pulled pork in a while, but the basic principle stays the same. Spices of your choice, flavorful liquid that balances salt, umami, sugar and acid, low heat and a lot of time.