Spicy Ginger Pork Soup

On on cold snowy night we wanted something warm for dinner and the Cooks Country we got in the mail today inspired Asian style spicy soup.  The original recipe called for several things we didn't have: beef, ramen noodles,scallions, chicken broth and cilantro.  But we did have pork, beef stock, etc etc.  If you can't improvise, you're not really cooking.  So throwing away the recipe at this point, I started with grating some ginger.  You should cut off the skin first on the section you'll be using.

As you can see I just did it right into the soup pot.  Then same thing with a whole lime.  You want to just get the green outer layer,not the bitter white pith below.  Its also important to know the oil in the rind will retain the citrus flavor when cooked, but the juice of a lime or lemon won't  You should add citrus juice to most recipes toward the end.

Next I threw in a clove of garlic, some sliced ginger, a couple dried chili peppers and a bay leaf.  At this point all the aromatics and spices which give the soup most of its characteristic asian flavor profile are done. 

Next up, we need some liquid for a soup, so in goes about  3 cups of beef stock.  Along with that, you'll want to add about the same amount of water.  You can adjust to taste after you give it a chance to cook a bit.  Different stocks have very different concentrations and amounts of salt.I ended up adding about a teaspoon of salt in the end.  Then keeping it on high heat,take it to a boil.

Now I didn't have any ramen or rice noodles.  But I did have some black squid ink spaghetti my friend Chausa brought me back from Italy.  Obviously this is a big departure from the traditional rice noodle you'd see in most asian soups, but fuck it.  We'll call it asian fusion.  The black color at least gives the noodle a more exotic look. I threw in a half lb of spaghetti and let it boil about 10 minutes,till al dente.

While the noodles are cooking you want to take a very sharp chef's knife and slice the pork as thinly as possible.  Don't go crazy, its not carpaccio, but you're going to throw this in at the very end and allow the hot broth to cook it.  The fact that it cooks very quickly and is so thinly sliced allows less expensive cuts of meat to stay tender and absorb a lot of flavor.  Asians are great at making cheap shit taste good.

 I also chopped up some cabbage at the end and threw that in just before the pork.  Then throw the pork into the boiling soup and immediately turn off the heat.  Mix it gently to ensure all the pork is cooked.  Add a tablespoon of soy sauce and the juice from the lime you zested.  I threw some torn lettuce that was in the fridge on at the end too mainly for presentation.  You'll end up with this delicious looking soup and a kitchen that smells great.  Beginning to end this took about 30 minutes.  So remember that if you know the flavor profile of the dish you're making, you can do it with quite a few substitutions and end up with something that is in essence the same thing.

Cook, bitches.  Its easy. (I didn't even change out of my work clothes)

A Couple Thanksgiving Tips

I'm not cooking thanksgiving this year, and I didn't last year either.  Gotta say I miss it, but we're going to someone else's place.  So instead I thought I'd giving a couple quick tips for people who are cooking and might be a little nervous.  There's really no rhyme or reason to this list, I'm just making it up as I go along.

1)  Plan the order you're cooking things (especially things that need the oven).  For a big meal like this, planning is key.  Think about how much room is in the oven, what things can be done ahead and reheated quickly at the last minute, what things can share the oven at the same temp, how time and oven space will the turkey or roast take etc.  You don't want to have a bunch of pies that you can't cook because there's no room to cook them.

2) Think about serving dishes and table layout.  Do you need 2 gravy boats, or an extra casserole dish?  What about a second table and chairs?

3) Brine your turkey starting the day before.  This really makes a huge difference in flavor and moistness (way more than I believed before I started doing it).  I literally will never server a turkey unbrined again if I have a choice (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/good-eats-roast-turkey-recipe/index.html).  This also really helps with the breast meat drying out before the dark meat is finished.  Another tip for that is to cover the breast with shiny side out aluminum foil for the first 1/3 of the cooking time.  Also, if you want to cut cooking time, apparently the hot thing this year is butterflying the turkey. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/butterflied-dry-brined-roasted-turkey-with-roasted-root-vegetable-panzanella-recipe/index.html

4)  Do not make stuffing with just premade packaged crap.  If you want to use boxed stuffing as a base, ok, but you must add fresh vegetables (carrots, onions, garlic, thyme, celery) and stock from boiling the giblets.  This makes stuffing go from blah to awesomely delicious.  Also, you don't need to do stuffing in the turkey, just cook it in a casserole dish.

5)  Make the gravy with the same stock from the giblets and drippings from the turkey pan.  This also means keeping a bit of water in the pan while the turkey roasts to prevent drippings from burning.  Once you've finished roasting the bird, throw the whole roasting pan on the stove top on medium heat and deglaze with the stock.  get all the sticky goodness whisked in and thicken with a water/flour mix.  Make sure after you add the flour you keep it simmering for a few minutes to cook the flour.  Whisk it all smooth.

6)  A rib roast is a great alternative or addition to turkey.  Just puree oil, butter, garlic, salt, pepper and whatever spices into a paste and rub on the meat then roast.  very easy and delicious.

7)  You can cook potatoes for your mashed potatoes in the micowave (just don't peel them ahead of time or they'll dry out).

That's all I can think of right now.  If you have any questions email me, unless you want really good answers, then email Alton Brown.