Of Cookbooks & Momofuku Steamed Pork Buns

Hey friends! It’s been a while since my last post. Thing is, last week was my birthday week and I’m also busy preparing for a huge party this coming Saturday for hubby’s birthday. Yup, March is our birthday month and I’m struggling to find time to cook something for this blog.

Anyhow, one of the presents I got from hubby for my birthday is the Momofuku cookbook by David Chang! I’ve always wanted to have one and I was literally close to getting one from Amazon. Perfect timing

I got my Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table last December from my sister and thought a David Chang and Thomas Keller should be in my collection too. Now that I got my Momofuku book, anyone’s welcome to pamper me with a Thomas Keller hehe

I like Dorie’s book and have made her Gougeres but I can’t connect much because I haven’t been to France. I haven’t eaten in an authentically-French restaurant although there’s a lot of restaurants in Manila that serve French cuisine. However, I can’t even tell if they’re authentic or not because I have no basis of comparison.

On the reverse, I connect a lot with David Chang’s book. First off, he’s Korean and I’m hooked to Korean dramas and reading about his struggles as a budding chef towards forming the Momofuku empire led me to thinking that his stories should be made into a movie! Secondly, I’ve been to NYC and I can picture the food business scenarios he describes in the book. More importantly, I can connect with his food trip and style maybe because we’re of the same age (1977 babies, yeah!). The young man is a genius!

To me, when I hear Momofuku, the first thing that comes to mind is Steamed Pork Buns. I thought that with the book on hand, there’s no reason for me to dilly-dally.

Well, what I thought sounded easy (“steamed” = easy for me) turned out to be a painstaking labor. The pork buns are not as easy as 1-2-3. The three major components of the dish all require hard work and extreme patience! All in all, I started preparing at 11am just so that we can eat the buns by 7pm. That felt like day of waiting and prepping and cooking!

Now you may wonder, is it worth the effort? I’d say a million times that YES, the buns are sensational and insanely delicious that I won’t get tired of making them over and over!

Humba (Filipino Braised Pork Belly)

Humba or the Filipino version of braised pork belly is a household favorite. It resembles adobo but it’s sweeter. Traditionally, Humba makes use of black beans and there are even some versions that use banana blossom. I didn’t use either in my version but I retained saba or cardava bananas.

Here’s my recipe for what I like to call “crispy” Humba:

Spicy Minced Pork With Eggplants

Whenever I go to Chinese restaurants, one of the dishes that I love to order is Spicy Szechuan Eggplant or eggplants with minced pork. Most of the time, I end up with Lemon Chicken because my companions either don’t like eggplants or they like sweet and tangy better.

I haven’t tried making this dish at home before although I have a fair idea of how I should make it. It shouldn’t be so hard because I only have pork and eggplants as main ingredients.

Recently, I came across a recipe called Ground Pork and Diced Eggplants which is really interesting because it uses three kinds of sauces. Patterned from it and using oyster sauce, I made my version of Minced Pork with Eggplants.

Tasty Tuesday: Pork and Shrimp Dumplings

In my last post, I told you about this wedding gift that we didn’t open until now. It’s a 20-piece cookware set and the one item I loved the most from the set is the steamer. I have always wanted to cook steamed food but the only steamer I have at home is that single layer steamer which is actually just an accessory to a rice cooker. The old steamer works but this new one is a lot better

The very first dish I made from the new steamer is a steamed favorite: Pork and Shrimp Dumplings.

 

 

 

 

 

I have never made dumplings before and I was expecting the “wrapping” part to be the most difficult but it turned out to be the most fun! It really wasn’t that hard at all

Bagnet Ensalada (Crackling Pork Salad)

I know, I know, this doesn’t look like a salad and you’re probably yelling “I WANT RICE!” Just allow me to make use of crackling pork in a salad this one time Will make you feel less guilty, promise!

Bagnet (crackling pork) is a famous dish from the Ilocos province which is served with bagoong. I used bagnet as the main ingredient for my salad for this month’s Foodbuzz 24×24. As I said in my Meal.Teal.It’s A Deal! post, I mixed crackling pork with mustard leaves and tomatoes and served it with a special bagoong Balayan, a special fermented fish paste that borders on the flavors of anchovy sauce.

Mixing the salad was easy, but it’s making the crackling pork that’s a little tricky.