UnRecipe: Slip Sliding Away Into a Food Trend

What is up with sliders, people? Every freaking restaurant has them. As if having one hamburger isn't enough, now you can get two to three mini ones, albeit adorable, but often with less meat, more bun and a higher price. Blame my Depression Era parental voice talking, but in my best Hank Hill (from Mike Judge's King of the Hill) voice, I gotta say, "that ain't right."  Not to say the concept of sliders is a bad one, but these days I'm eating more things at home, and the recent family visit with Auntie S., it prompted some experiments in Wasabi Kitchen Stadium to put together BBQ pork shoulder with a kimchee slaw, between split ju bao.

The slider phenomena hits our home kitchen with much tasty results - Photo by Wasabi Prime

I thought of this recipe months ago, while visiting my parents in Hawaii. It's the land of kimchee and all things pickled, often served with some savory meats. It doesn't take culinary rocket science to mash those things together into a moment of "duh," and have a kimchee/pulled pork lightbulb blink on over one's head. I had been cooking out of Andrea Nguyen's Asian Dumplings book lately, and her ju bao (baked bun) recipe has been a favorite. A sticky, milky yeast dough, it makes for some attractive buns -- no naughtiness intended, unless you like a giggle or two -- and instead of filling them with pulled pork, I decided to make a batch totally plain and just split them to use for the kimchee pork sliders.

They make for great little buns, but they are oily little buggers. You wouldn't think it to look at the innocent little flaky gems, but I guess that flakiness has to come from somewhere -- pure, delicious oil! Once cooled, I stored them in brown lunch sacks, and the oil from the dough really made quick work of the bags. It made me think of that episode of The Simpsons where Homer is trying to become medically obese to permanently work from home, so the wily talents of Dr. Nick (Hey, everybody!) encourages a diet where any food that renders a piece of paper as clear as glass from the oil is A-OK for Homer's new meal plan. The brown paper sacks filled with these flaky buns that soon became transparent made me long for washing oneself with a rag on a stick. If you've seen the episode, you're probably laughing, but if not, you're most likely recoiling in horror at the thought of such a thing. But don't be scared. These little baked buns couldn't have been more heavenly.

Delicious, rich ju bao - innocent until you place them in a brown paper sack - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Health concerns aside, I moved forward, using the slow cooker on a three pound cut of pork shoulder, letting it cook down until it was shreddable-soft. and mixed it with some fermented bean paste and soy sauce. I took a whole bottle of kimchee, chopped it into smaller pieces and mixed it with a store-bought mix of cole slaw of shredded broccoli, carrots and cauliflower, as they're more hearty, colorful, and our food processor motor decided to crap out on us. It's prepared bags of veggie shreds for the time being, until I get a new kitchen shredder. Each little bun was split and stuffed with the slow cooked and seasoned pork, and a heaping bit of the kimchee slaw.

Once, twice, three times a pork slider dinner. It was nice to take on a restaurant trend in the comfort of one's own home, mostly because it meant there were several platefuls of these things to pick on for a few days. The nice thing about an UnRecipe like this is, you can do whatever you want with them, filling it with whatever your craving, be it mini burgers, Sloppy Joes, or yes, kimchee and slow-roasted pork.

UnRecipe: Happy Valentine's Day, Tiger

Yeah, yeah, I know -- it's not Valentine's Day, Rip Van Wasabi! True, but sometimes it takes a few days to get my shinola together after a busy week, so forgive the belated post to honor sweethearts and overpriced roses. The weekened celebrated Lunar New Year as well as heart-shaped lovey-doveyness, so the Prime prepared an Asian-inspired dinner for Mr. Wasabi: Sake Marinated Steak with Kimchee, Pork Dumpling Ravioli with Mushrooms, and Pork-filled Potstickers. For dessert, we had Coconut Vanilla Rice Cakes over Seared Mango Slices, drizzled with a Peanut and Coconut Sauce. But for the main "beauty shot" of the post, I'm showing all the leftovers shoved into a baked bun or ju bao, made from Andrea Nguyen's Asian Dumplings book.

I made fresh bao - just call me YoSaffBridge! - Photo by Wasabi Prime

It seemed like all signs were pointing towards a meal like this for Valentine's Day, as the Prime was fresh off the delicious high from the luncheon hosted by Monsoon East, for Andrea Nguyen's book. I have to admit much Epic Shame that I didn't make the dumpling skins from scratch, even after her very easy tutorial over how to make them, and the fact that I had the book in-hand. I had already bought a package of premade wrappers and just promised myself, "next time, I swear." I made a filling that was used in all the dumplings, which included ground pork, chopped mushrooms and peppers, garlic and ginger. Not a typical mix, but I had made the mistake of getting mushrooms from Costco and if of course meant I had to put 'shrooms in everything that week to use them up. I hate letting food go to waste -- you know how I roll.

Hello, my little dumplings! Photos by Wasabi Prime

I used the large package of dumpling wrappers to practice a few different shapes. Everything was cooked the same way, potsticker-style -- seared in a pan with oil, add a bit of water, cover to steam, and hopefully you don't eat them all before they get plated. I had mixed results with the open-topped pork-stuffed satchel-shaped dumplings. I didn't use enough oil, so many just stuck and had to be torn up and scraped out of the pan -- FAIL! But they were still cooked and edible, so they became ugly lunch for the following week. But lesson learned, either use a nonstick pan with a little oil or just add more oil and let our arteries figure it out later.

The flank steak was marinated in a mixture of seasonings and sake, which gave it a nice hint of sweetness. Seared and left to rest, the pan was deglazed with kimchee, and served together. With the different-shaped dumplings and the kimchee beef, it was defnitely a pretty dinner to have for Valentine's Day. All the flavors were fairly similar between the three options, since I used a lot of the same ingredients, but after taking so long to take the photos of the food, we were too hungry to be picky about flavor profiles and just ATE.

Like rice pudding, on crack! - Photo by Wasabi Prime

For dessert, I had been inspired by the pancakes served at Wild Ginger for brunch -- spongey flapjacks with a peanut and coconut sauce. I wanted to do something similar, so I made a batch of rice, steamed in coconut milk and vanilla, with a bit of sugar. It was pressed in a mold to form compact little squares which were then oiled and pan-fried to give a nice crispnness to the outside. Fresh mango slices were seared and the cakes were placed over the fruit, sprinkled with toasted macadamia nuts and more mango chunks, and a sauce of brown sugar, coconut milk and peanut butter was poured over. It kind of made me think that Elvis would have liked it, as it was reminiscent of his famed cravings for peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Just call it an Elvis Goes Hawaii dessert. It was a nice mix of sweet, fresh, and a little savory.

As for the ju bao, this was both a solution for finishing off the leftover dumpling filling and penance for using store-bought wrappers. No, no, I shouldn't say penance, because that implies it was a chore to make the dough -- it totally wasn't and the results are worth the effort! It was simple enough to make, although I'm a clumsy baker, so I had to add more flour to keep the dough from being too sticky. It didn't affect the final result, as the finished pork-filled buns were a heavenly bite of springy dough and a crisp outer shell. I made giant-sized ones because I knew they would be like ready-to-eat meals and added a little flourish of sesame seeds on top -- kind of makes it look like a fluffy hamburger bun. The dough is simple enough to make and neutral in flavor to where you could fill it with anything. It makes for a great solution of getting rid of any odd leftover bits that aren't enough for a full portion.

This was the 10th Valentine's Day for Mr. Wasabi and I, and we've never gone out for a Valentine's dinner. I'm certainly not sad about it, as we've always liked making it a more personal holiday instead of going out and being in a busy restaurant where everyone else is there for the same reason. The first Valentine's Day, Brock took the whole day off from work and made an amazing meal, with a big bouquet of roses waiting for me. A couple of years ago, he literally made a portrait of me out of different kinds of chocolate, and put it on a creme brulee -- for reals! I don't think I can ever match some of his amazing and thoughtful Valentine's Day capers, but the 14th definitely makes me thankful for his sweet, creative heart.