Korean Pork Belly Sliders

I am obsessed with Korean Food. This recipe is an East meets West gem. If you've never had pork belly, you are really missing out! It is actually the same meat as bacon except it is not cured. It has gotten quite popular and can easily be found at any good market or butcher. I buy mine at the HMart Asian store.

• 4 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon chili oil
• 1/2 teaspoon chili flakes
• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar or white distilled vinegar
• 3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• 1 pound pork belly, sliced into thick bacon like strips
• Thinly sliced cucumbers
• Thinly sliced green onions
• Your favorite Spicy BBQ Sauce

Combine all ingredients except pork belly, and whisk together until sugar is dissolved. Add pork, and marinate in fridge for 24 hours.

Cover a deep oven pan with foil and single layer the pork belly strips. Bake in oven 425 degrees until edges start to char. For the last few minutes change to broil until tops get crispy. Drain the fat and discard.

To serve, cut the pork into pieces that fit into slider buns. Spread a small amount of spicy bbq sauce and top with thinly sliced vegetable such as crisp cucumbers and green onions. Chopped kimchi is also very good.

Old Bay Crawfish Dip

Creamy indulgence and crazy good with just enough kick! 

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 bunch green onions, sliced (about 1 cup)
• 1 small green bell pepper, diced
• 1 lb. package frozen cooked, peeled crawfish tails, thawed and undrained
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 (4-oz.) jar diced pimiento, drained
• 1 teaspoons Old Bay seasoning
• Red pepper flakes to taste or a few drops of hot sauce
• 1 (8-oz.) package cream cheese, softened
• Crostini slices
• Sliced green onion for garnish

Melt butter in a deep pan over medium heat; add green onions and bell pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, 8 minutes or until bell pepper is tender. 

Stir in crawfish and next 3 ingredients; cook, stirring occasionally, 10 minutes. 

Reduce heat to low. Stir in cream cheese until mixture is smooth and bubbly. Garnish and serve with crostini.

Buffalo Chicken Bites with Blue Cheese Dipping Sauce

Just in time for football, but can be enjoyed all year round!

• 1 store-bought rotisserie chicken
• 1/4 cup Frank's Red Hot
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 cup sharp Cheddar
• 3/4 cup cream cheese
• 1/4 cup diced scallions
• 1 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 cups panko or plain bread crumbs
• Vegetable oil, for frying

Blue Cheese Dip:

• 3/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 cup packed blue cheese, broken up
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (optional)
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 1 teaspoon chopped garlic

Have oil heated to 350 degrees F.

Pick the meat from the chicken and discard the skin. Course chop the chicken and place it in a large bowl adding the hot sauce, pepper, cheeses, scallions, and toss to combine. Roll the chicken into 2-ounce balls, about the size of a golf ball (can be smaller for bites).

Place the flour, eggs, and bread crumbs in 3 separate bowls. Roll each ball in the flour, then the egg and then the bread crumbs. Set aside.

When the oil is hot fry the chicken balls in batches. Cook for about 2 minutes per batch. Remove the chicken to paper towel lined plate to drain the excess oil. (Can be stored in freezer and then baked on a cookie sheet to reheat.)

To make the sauce, combine all ingredients in a large bowl and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Serve with chicken.

OVEN SMOKED BRISKET

Brisket is one of the least tender cuts of beef, but it can be made tender and the flavor can't be beat. Try it, you won't be disappointed! 

• 3-6 lb. brisket
• 1 tablespoon smoked sea salt
• 1 tablespoon light brown sugar
• 1/2 tablespoon chili powder
• 1/2 tablespoon paprika
• 1/2 tablespoon dried mustard
• 1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1/2 tablespoon onion powder

Trim brisket of excessive fat, but leave some for flavor. 

Preheat the oven to 250º. Pour 3 cups water into the bottom of a large roasting pan with a rack.

In a small bowl, mix all the spices until well combined. Rub the spice blend over the entire surface of the brisket and lay the brisket on the wire roasting rack. Cover tightly with foil. 

Slow roast in the oven until the internal temperature reaches 155º. insert a thermometer into the brisket, through the foil, so you can see the reading.

Remove the foil and continue roasting until the internal temperature reaches 168º. Depending on your oven, and where you inserted the meat thermometer, this process may take 4-6 hours depending on the size.

Take the brisket out of the oven and allow it to rest for 20 minutes before serving. Cover it loosely with foil to help retain the heat. Cut the brisket across the grain into thin slices, and serve warm.

Kickin' Shrimp

This dish is scrumptious and simple to make!

• 24 jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 ounce pepper ham from the deli  sliced into 2" strips
• 1/2 cup sifted all-purpose flour
• Creole seasoning
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

• 1 cup white wine
• 1 bell pepper diced
• 2 tablespoons shallots, minced
• 
6 medium cloves garlic, peeled and minced

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2  - 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper

• Kosher salt, to taste

• 1 jar Pepper Jelly
• Fresh parsley

Kickin’ Sauce:
Over medium heat, simmer wine, shallots, bell pepper and garlic until reduced by half, stirring frequently. Slowly add the softened butter, a bit at a time, into the pot, while stirring. Add salt and crushed red pepper to taste. Set aside.

Make a 1/4-inch deep incision down the back of each shrimp where it has been deveined, and place one pepper ham strip in each incision. Secure with a toothpick. Combine the all-purpose flour with Creole seasoning, and lightly dust each piece of shrimp with the seasoned flour. Fry the shrimp in the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat for about 30 seconds on each side. Shrimp should be firm with a nice red-brown color. Remove shrimp and place on a paper towel for a few seconds to drain. 

Toss shrimp in a bowl with kickin’ sauce to coat thoroughly, and remove the toothpicks. Place 2 tablespoons of Pepper Jelly on each plate into a pool, and arrange 4-5 shrimp onto the pepper jelly. Sprinkle with fresh parsley.

Serve with rice.

Feed A Cold…Homemade Chicken Soup

This is a no-fail recipe. By leaving the vegetables whole, you simply cook everything at the same time and do all of your cutting up at the end. 

• 1 entire chicken breast bone-in skin on
• Soup Greens (leave whole and skin the onion)
• 2-3 carrots
• Chicken broth
• Salt and pepper to taste

Put the chicken breast in a big pot (as big as you have), and fill it with chicken broth to the point that the chicken is covered. 

Next add the "soup greens"... celery, parsnip, turnip, dill, leek, and parsley. Sometimes you can find them in a package together called "soup greens", sometimes you have to buy them separately. 

Boil for 45-60 minutes.

When the soup is done, take the chicken out and cool it off, peel off the skin, cut it up, and put it back into the soup. Remove the carrots, onion, leek, turnip, parsnip and celery and cut them up, and put them back into the soup.

Cook some wide egg noodles or rice to add to the soup.

Korean Scallion Pancake - Pa Jeon

Pa is the Korean word for scallion and jun (or jeon) means any food that is coated in sort of batter and pan-friend. It works as a hearty snack, an appetizer, or a side dish. These are delicious, especially if you eat them dipped with spicy soy sauce.

• 2 cups flour
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1.5 cups water
• 1 bunch of scallions, cut into very thin slivers 2-3 inch lengths
• 1 tsp salt
• Oil for cooking

Mix all ingredients together except the scallion and let sit for about 10 minutes. Check consistency before cooking – batter should be a little bit runnier than American pancake batter, so that the pa jun cooks quickly and evenly.

Heat a saute pan over medium heat and coat with a thin layer of oil. Spread the scallions on the bottom of the pan so they are evenly disbursed. Cook for a few minutes without moving the green onions.

Pour batter to fill pan in a thin layer (about 1/3 of your batter should fill a regular saute pan).

Cook for 3-4 minutes until set and golden brown on bottom.

Turn over with help of spatula or plate (or flip it in the air if you are good at that) and finish by cooking 1-2 more minutes, adding more oil if necessary.

Repeat with any remaining batter. You should get 3-4 pancakes out of one batter.

Sweet & Spicy Dipping Sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce 
3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar 
1 tablespoon Asian chili sauce (like Sriracha) 
2 teaspoons sesame oil 
2 tablespoon sugar 
sesame seeds (to garnish)
Wisk together ingredients in a bowl, making sure sugar is completely disolved.