A Pork Story (part two)

Hubby and I agreed to work on the second piece of Piglet this morning. My way. So I put my excellent recipe idea to work at last (on poor, innocent Piglet)!


HOW I MADE IT

I put Piglet to thaw out in hot water and chopped up half a head of garlic, some green seasoning, and three pimientos. By the time Piglet was thawed, already washed, my sauce had regained room temperature after spending a couple days in the fridge. I stabbed Piglet a few times and slashed him across his meatiest parts, and then proceeded to rub him down firmly with the garlic, seasoning, and pimientos, as well as some onion powder, salt, and black pepper. I zig-zagged some extra virgin olive oil across the top of the meat and rubbed the seasoning into the meat, as well as into the gashes.

I had hubby add sauce to Piglet and rubbed him down on both sides before putting him straight into the preheated oven at 450 degrees Fahrenheit. After 15 minutes, I pulled Piglet out to baste him, and after another 15 minutes, I basted Piglet, flipped him over, and placed him on a wire rack on top of the dish so the sauces could drip down below.

I put him in for another 25 minutes and then pulled him out again. I added a cup of water to the sauces in the dish below and basted Piglet with that as I flipped him again and sliced him to see how much more cooking he needed.

He was moist and mostly cooked, but to the center of the meat, closer to the bone he still needed more cooking, so I basted him with the thick sauce and the sauce in the dish as well and put him in the oven for another 35-40 minutes.

Hubby and I took him out of the oven to see the top part looking crispy in some parts and my first instinct was that I overcooked or even burned it. I sliced through and saw that Piglet was indeed fully cooked, and made some slices throughout the meat, and basted with the sauce in the dish before carving out some for hubby's meal.


REVIEWS

I told hubby today that he's the best and worst critic. He gives excellent reviews, but makes me wait forever for his response and keeps a mutual face throughout tasting and talking so I have no idea what to expect. (Which is probably a good thing, but having butterflies in your stomach after eating a cheesy lasagna is not a pleasant experience.)

Hubby put his mutual thinking face on as he had a piece as is. He chewed thoughtfully and swallowed slowly. Then he picked up another piece and dipped it in the ketchup and pepper to the side. He seemed to be thinking hard, as he chewed thoughtfully, and swallowed slowly.

"Well?" I asked anxiously.

"It's" he began (and continued 30 seconds later) "not so good" he finished.

I was devastated. I was so sure this recipe thing would work. Taking a deep breath, I pulled myself together and dared to ask why.

"Well" he began (and continued 30 seconds later) "I'm just kidding, this is real, real, real, good!" he exclaimed.

I gave him my I-will-kill-you look, calmly informed him that I wanted to strangle him, and asked if he was actually serious.

He was. He described it as better than the pork from a place in Tabaquite, which he had previously claimed was the best pork anywhere. He loved the moist texture and how every inch was packed with flavor (which he did not get from the first pork). Even the crispy looking parts were more moist than pork he had eaten anywhere else.

Drawback? Now he wants a sauce to go with it because the pork from Tabaquite has some supposedly spectacular sauce that gives their pork all its flavor and if this roast pork gets a sauce like that, no other pork will be able to stand up to it. Funny. Really funny.

A Pork Story (part one)

So hubby's friend K dropped off a piece of pork for him last week. Hubby got the idea of making roast pork. Neither of us have any experience with roast pork. To spare myself the agony of cooking the beloved character of Piglet from Winnie the Pooh for my carnivorous spouse, I asked if he would be willing to experiment with it on his own. He agreed. So two days ago, we took poor little Piglet (forget the fact that this was actually Piglet's mommy or daddy) out of the freezer in the morning, and placed him in a large bowl of steaming hot water to thaw out. We spent the majority of the day cruising the internet, searching for recipes of roast pork.

Seeing American and British versions seemed to discourage him, so I suggested we search for Trinidad roast pork, which was what he actually wanted. Thankfully, there were a few others who had queried the same thing. As I inspected every suggestion and recipe idea I came across, hubby grew restless, hungry, and cranky and so we had to run to the kitchen to see if Piglet was ready to cook.

Piglet was barely ready, so we organized something else to soothe hubby's growling stomach and cut Piglet in half so if this recipe didn't work, we could try again. I immediately began to prepare a sauce I had been concocting in my head since early morning.


HOW I MADE IT

I began with a roux, adding about three tablespoons of butter to about three tablespoons of melted butter, I mixed until the lumps were gone and it began to thicken. I threw in some chopped green seasoning (chive, podina, culantro) and about a head of garlic, minced, as well as two finely chopped pimientos. I added about two tablespoons of paprika and chili powder, followed by a tablespoon of Maggi (bouillon cubes) vegetable seasoning, parsley, oregano, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, back pepper, and sugar. I added about a cup of water as the mixture got drier.

*While making the sauce, my father-in-law informed us that gas might be low, so hubby rushed out to buy a tank of gas to come back.*

As the sauce was still watery, I added about a tablespoon of ketchup, a tablespoon of aromatic bitters (which hubby will now find out), three tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce, a teaspoon of brown sugar & hickory flavored barbecue sauce, a tablespoon of soy sauce, and two tablespoons of hot homemade peppersauce. I beat in the ingredients with a fork for about five minutes before leaving the sauce to simmer until I felt I had achieved the right thickness.

As I was beating the sauce, I tried to think up how exactly I was going to attempt to do poor Piglet justice. I put a few methods together, decided to take a couple risks with it, and had a recipe planned out by the time I was ready to wash the pork. I had called Daddy an hour before to ask the meat chef's (he claims he's not a pro; we all have reason to believe it's a lie) expertise. He had advice on stew pork, geera pork, barbecued pork, washing the pork, cutting the pork, but as for roast pork...nothing.

So I followed his advice and washed the Piglet with flour, not lime, and followed a random website's advice and patted Piglet as dry as humanly possible with a bunch of paper towels. As I waited for hubby to return, I realized I was most likely on my own with this, and would have to begin the process of cooking poor Piglet without hubby's valuable assistance. I put my sentiments aside, said a little prayer for poor, innocent, little Piglet, and took my sauce off the stove, as I got ready to prepare beloved Piglet for my even more beloved hubby (because I love him so much).

As I preheated the oven, hubby came running into the kitchen, completely out of breath, and told me to wait. I waited until he caught his breath and as he spoke my agonizing decision to make Piglet for him became complicated. A lot.

Hubby had met one of his friends, who was in fact the son of a bar owner who was famous for making roast pork. According to this friend, we should cover Piglet in oil and fry him, as putting him in the oven would do nothing but bake him. Hubby decided to follow his friend's advice, and so my excellent recipe idea was squashed. [DISCLAIMER: All actions from this point forward was not my fault. I blame PMS. I am innocent.]

So I stared at hubby as if he was talking another language (PMS glared at him, I just stared). I sighed (PMS let out a huge sigh and said "what?") and I agreed (PMS said "fine, whatever" with an attitude, not me). Remembering his eagerness to experiment on his own, I asked if he would be okay seasoning Piglet on his own, and he gave me his how-could-you-do-this-to-me face, so PMS gave him a you-are-so-not-serious-it's-not-even-funny-so-don't-even-start look, and I gave him a okay-fine-I'll-help-you-but-I'm-not-doing-everything-since-my-plan-got-cancelled look, and PMS gave him a you-said-you-would-do-it-on-your-own-and-now-you're-giving-me-the-look-when-I-should-refuse-to-help-you-but-I-won't-because-I-already-made-the-seasoning-and-your-look-is-getting-to-me-you-evil-husband-you look.

So I washed the stickiness of Piglet's dead body off my hands and instructed hubby to rub Piglet [as if he were massaging him, but firmer] with half a head of minced garlic and finely chopped green seasoning. After rubbing both sides, I poured in some sauce for hubby to repeat the rubbing process again, before remembering to tell him the sauce had pepper and might leave his hands burning. My guilt was replaced by evil PMS which was then pissed off because he wasn't bugged about it; he just said "Nah, it's okay". And he was humming. Happily humming. So the damned guilt returned. And then I remembered I loved him. So I gave PMS a time-out.

We covered the seasoned Piglet with Saran wrap, and put him in the fridge to marinate for about two hours. Then hubby heated up a tall pot half filled with oil, and we dunked the marinated Piglet in and covered the pot. You should probably know that dunking the saucy Piglet into oil created a lot of oil splashing. We left Piglet in there for about seven minutes or so, on high heat, The we flipped him (more splashing) and lowered the heat to the lowest heat and left him there for more than ten minutes.

We took him out and put him on the cutting board where I sliced him to see if he was fully cooked. He was not. So we dunked him back into the oil and left him for about eight minutes or so I think. We took him out and placed him on a paper towel to soak up the oil and I got ready to cut him for proper serving sizes.


REVIEWS

Hubby and I laughed when we saw how dark and firm the exterior of Piglet was when we took him out. Hubby ate Piglet with some oyster sauce I made. Hubby says it was good, not bad to say bad, but it could have been better, and the first word that comes to mind is "burn" (with a trini accent). It was afterwards I remembered to mention that I've never heard of bars serving roast pork per se, and that I believed the popular dish from bars was actually just fried pork.

The night ended as PMS took over again and boosted my ego by filling my head with the *fact* that my way would have been better than just "good". But that was what PMS said, not me.

NOTE: Hubby refused to let me take a picture of the pork. Use your imagination I guess.

Vegetarian Empanadas (healthier too)

During the previous week, one of hubby's friends, K, invited us to join him and his girlfriend, L, on a lime (basic hang out session in Trinidad) going up to Toco (a beautiful and famous beach higher up on the island, and quite far for most Trinis. We agreed to wait on a plan, and so, by yesterday morning, (Easter Sunday) hubby and I sat in the back galeria waiting for word of whether any such plan would happen, and where the change of plans would take us.

As the morning quickly turned into afternoon, we all finally agreed on going Mayaro instead, as it was much too late to even attempt the Toco drive, especially with just us four at such a late hour.

Throughout the anticipation though, I had a different plan to consider. As the only vegetarian on board, I and I alone would have to organize something entirely different for me if we were going to cook on the beach for three meat eaters.

As I got lost in my thoughts (once again), I reminisced upon the cuisine of Brooklyn, somewhere I had lived for seven years as a child. As a result of such thoughts, I began craving the old neighborhood food of different cultures. I thought of the big Italian pizza place down the street, the Italian icees sold by carts on every corner, the Spanish snow cones (mango flavored with condensed milk = yum!) on every other corner, and the Mexican empanadas.

Once I got to the subject of empanadas, my brain did something like this: Empanadas. Mmmmm. I want some. I need some. I should have some. Trinidad doesn't have empanadas. *sigh* *gasp* I could...MAKE...empanadas! But wait...I don't have a recipe...I don't have the slightest clue how they do it! Hmmm...the guy on the corner of Fabco shoes used to pat out his dough, fill it with chicken or beef, mark the edges, and dunk it in oil...it wouldn't take too long to fry too...oh yeah...I can do this!

And so I rushed over to the kitchen as I began processing my own way of creating these fried goodies.


HOW I MADE IT

I put some frozen vegetarian lamb and dried soya chunks to soak in hot water. While that soaked, I put about one cup of flour in a medium sized bowl, leaving some extra on hand to knead the dough. I added about 3/4 of a teaspoon of baking powder, 1/2 cup of whole wheat bran, a dash of salt, a dash of sugar, and about 1/2 cup of cornmeal. I mixed all the dry ingredients together, and poured about a cup of lukewarm water as I began kneading it into a dough.

I put the dough aside and drained the water out of the soya chunks and veggie lamb with my hands before washing with flour and water and draining again about three times. I brought the bowl over to my cutting board and diced everything.

I got some pimiento peppers from my little garden (you can replace with jalapenos or any other flavorful pepper without a bitter taste), as well as some green seasoning like chive, podina, and culantro (any green seasoning you have on hand works). I finely chopped the pimientos and green seasoning and put a large saucepan on the stove on medium to high heat.

I started off with a roux once the pot was hot, adding two tablespoons of flour to about two tablespoon of melted butter already in the pan and began mixing with my wooden spoon. I added the pimientos, green seasoning, and 3/4 cup of mixed vegetables (carrots, peas, corn, string beans) followed by about a tablespoon each of chili powder, paprika, oregano, and maggi seasoning (or any bouillon cube). I mixed this together, threw in the soya and veggie lamb, and covered the pot for a minute. Then I uncovered the pot and mixed everything together as I added about a 1/4 cup of water. Then I added a large dash of salt, black pepper, and brown sugar.

I turned the heat down to medium to low, covered the pot, and put the dough on a floured counter as I began patting it down to a circle. I took a spoon and cut the circle into eight, and put the pieces aside. Each piece was now triangular shaped, so I took the three corners of each piece, and pushed it together, and then down, to begin forming a ball.

I patted each ball down to make a small to medium sized circle and took my filling off the stove. I gathered the filling to the center of the pot and then divided it into eight as well, and filled each circle with filling.

I then closed each circle over the filling, forming a semi-circle, and sealed the outer edges on both sides with a fork. I fried each empanada in a small frying pan with soyabean oil at medium to low heat once the oil was hot enough to start, and left them for one minute on each side.

Once taken out, I placed them on a paper towel to soak up any excess oil.


REVIEWS

K and L were kind enough to buy KFC for everyone once the plan to cook on the beach was squashed (mashed potatoes & gravy and fries for me), so the empanadas were not needed, especially as I was too excited taking pictures of the beautiful scenery as well as hubby and K playing football (soccer), to actually eat there.

I remembered the empanadas quite a while after we got home, and just around the time I was planning on going to bed. Remembering the empanadas made me so hungry I didn't bother reheating them and as I had taken up the most browned one, the crust had hardened as it cooled throughout the day and I ate everything but the crust. An hour later I ate from the rest of properly fried ones and ate most of the crust, but I think it would have been better if I microwaved it first. I remembered this morning that the empanada man used to serve his hot, straight out of the oil, onto a heating rack. Regardless, I loved it! The inside was juicy and packed with flavor, so I didn't need the oyster sauce I made to go with it.

Hubby tried one last night as well, and his eyebrows raised as he nodded in agreement and mumbled something that sounded like "mmmhmmmm this is good". He microwaved one this morning after it was refrigerated overnight and shared the same sentiments, with the exception of the crust beginning to harden once it cooled down.

I will definitely make these again, but next time I'll make sure everyone has it straight out of the frying pan, just like the empanada man does it in Brooklyn.

P.S. I returned to the area about a year and a half ago and he's still there. I'm guessing having them hot really does do wonders for the business ^_^

Vegan Cupcakes

I've been considering a cooking blog for a while now, but thought against it as I had started uploading cooking videos on youtube. Then the camera stopped working, and I was devastated. Shortly after this devastation, my mother-in-law sent us a phone that could take pictures and upload them to the computer. So I have since gotten over the devastation.

However, I really was pumped up for my cooking videos. And I had no recorder. So...I decided to channel all that excitement into finally starting a cooking blog! With lots of praise coming from hubby, Kim, Renuka, Amit, and Himlata, I'm ready!

My first entry is on the vegan cupcakes I invented last month. I was bored, and I had an immense craving for cupcakes, but being vegetarian, I couldn't find any eggless recipes that included items I actually had at home. To top that off, I had also just run out of milk. What's a veggie girl to do?

I headed over to the kitchen and proceeded to walk back and forth between every ingredient I had on every shelf in the kitchen, while taking five minute contemplation rest stops at each point. I thought of every vegetarian idea I had ever had, as well as dishes I had actually made, and especially, baked. Somehow, I came up with an idea and started zipping through the kitchen to grab a bowl, some spoons, a fork, and the ingredients I had miraculously thought to put to together.


HOW I MADE IT

This will be my "how I made it" section, because I don't really think there's any 'method' to what I do most of the time. So:

In my bowl, I put in about 1 1/3 cups of flour, a teaspoon each of baking powder and baking soda, 1 cup and an extra sprinkle of sugar, a dash of cinnamon, about two tablespoons of whole wheat bran, and a small pinch of salt because a lot of other recipes say so. I mixed it all together to get the ingredients as evenly distributed as possible. I made a well in the center and added about a half cup of oil, a tablespoon of vinegar, a drop of vanilla essence, and some lukewarm water and began folding the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients with a fork. As soon as the water had mixed in with some of the dry mixture, I kept adding water before it got doughy, and ended up with something that looked like a regular cake batter :)

I don't have a cupcake tray, but I did have paper cupcake holders, so I lined about twenty-something of them on a flat rectangular tray, and began filling them as the oven preheated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. I quickly realized I had to fill each holder only up to about half-way (because the first few started leaking out resulting in me removing everything from the tray, cleaning it all up, and replacing all cupcake holders as well as the sloppy first few, then diminishing my excitement tremendously as I pretended to be patient with the rest).

Once I was done, I put them in the oven for about 30 minutes or so. However, our oven is not the most youthful one out there, so I started checking from 20 minutes. To be safe, once you reach a 15-20 minute mark and the top looks firm, start checking with a toothpick. My toothpick came out clean around the 30 minute mark in an oven that is famous for taking longer than usual to bake.

While my cupcakes were cooling, I took out a container of white icing from the fridge I had previously made for my last eggless cake (most icings can last up to two weeks in an airtight container - my version actually lasts more). As it had been in the fridge, it was quite firm, so I finished cleaning up and had a cup of herbal tea while I waited for it to regain a usable consistency.

I took a portion of the icing and put it in a small bowl, adding about two tablespoons of cocoa powder, a dash of sugar, and mixed until I felt it was the right consistency. I now had two colors of icing because while I was having the tea, I came up with the brilliant idea of doing a yin-yang theme using chocolate and vanilla!

So my cupcakes had cooled, and I took the most lopsided one to get an idea of how exactly this concoction tasted = brilliant! It had a unique taste, and as I regularly have problems with low blood sugar, I found it notably sweet for my taste, but it was otherwise absolutely scrumptious!

I added a drop of lemon essence to my white frosting to challenge the taste of the sweeter chocolate one, and to give the cupcake itself a flavor of both frostings mingled. We had a knife with a blade bent at a 90 degree angle (hubby never remembers why and I don't think I want to know) that was perfect for use as a frosting spatula, and so I began frosting.

The design was fairly simple, the only difficulty was applying my very humbled art skills to actually give it the prominent curve of the yin-yang design. I pushed in a white sprinkle to the biggest curve of the chocolate frosting to represent the white dot, and a dot of cocoa powder on the opposite end of the white frosting for the darker dot. For the most misshapen ones, I tried to detract from the deformed design and attract to the overall pretty by throwing a bunch of sprinkles on it, simply put.

REVIEWS

My husband, the biggest carnivore I know, and biggest veggie critic that exists, actually loved these! He couldn't stop praising them, and continuously snuck off to secretly have more (adding to his unhealthy diet that he has no concern about). My compensation was knowing that he actually loved vegan cupcakes, and was not in any state of delirium or madness when so stated (repeatedly), and also, as much as he hates having anything to do with whole wheat, I made sure some bran was there in every bite (which he will find out when he reads this), which was probably the biggest reason why I was so shocked at his approval and apparent delight.

Kim, my adopted sister, and her family absolutely loved these! I returned a few hours after dropping a kit of cupcakes off and they were already done! I was then interrogated somewhat lovingly by Kim, her sister, and mom, for my super secret (that is now no longer secret) recipe and giggled with glee as they approvingly noted down each ingredient and then proceeded to [successfully] bribe me with huge bear hugs in return.

As stated above, I found the cupcakes notably sweet, but thoroughly enjoyed them. The tangy lemon flavored white frosting blended nicely with the sweeter chocolate frosting, prevented it from being too sweet with frosting, and totally enhanced the flavor of the cupcakes. I only had one at a time, and the most I had at once was two. It was even better with a cup of hot green tea. I have drawn the conclusion that this invention was indeed successful. ^_^