A week in review

No weekend cooking extravaganza to recap today; this weekend I barely stood in front of the stove.   Instead of holing up in my apartment as my hermit like tendencies usually spur me to do, I actually left my house (gasp!) and went upstate to visit friends and go apple picking.  So this post is merely a summary of the things I cooked this past week.  Well the ones I've managed to take pictures of at any rate.  

On the menu this week there was:

'Korean' Pulled Pork and

Spicy Daikon Salad

I've placed Korean in scare quotes because it's really more Korean inspired than authentico.  However, it was authentically delicious.  Although the meat by itself was a bit dry, the copious amounts of rich, savory, salty broth that was produced more than made up for this.

I want to go to there.

As you can see I served mine over rice.  It would be equally tasty (and twice as portable!) between two toasty buns.

To round off my porky feast I made a daikon salad to go with it.  Although the flavors of the two were pretty similar, I think it added a nice fresh crunch to what otherwise would have been a porkpocalypse.

It looked better in person.  You'll see.  

Recipes

'Korean' Pulled Pork

  This recipe was inspired by a recipe for Korean beef tacos.

• 1.5-2lbs pork 
• 1/2 cup water 
• 1/2 cup soy sauce (low sodium works best)
• 1/3 cups packed brown sugar
• 4 cloves garlic minced
• 1.5 inch ginger grated
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar + 1 tsp
• 1/2 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tbsp Korean pepper powder 
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper 
• 1 tbsp gochujong (Korean chili paste)
• 1/2 onion

1. Place pork in slow cooker. Large slice the onions and place in slow cooker.
2.  In a small bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients until combined; pour over the pork. Cook on low heat for 8 hours.
3.  Remove bones (if you used a cut with bones), and add 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper and 1 tsp rice vinegar.

This recipe is super easy and super delicious.  Leaving you with plenty of time to make:

Spicy Daikon Salad

I adapted this recipe from here.  It is simple and delicious, and the tedious task of dicing daikon into miniature matchsticks is well worth your effort.  

My matchsticks are uneven because I have the knife skills of a four year old.

• 1 lb. Korean daikon cut into 3-4 inch matchsticks 
• 1 Tbsp salt 
• 2-4 tsp sugar (to taste) 
• 2 Tbsp Korean red chili powder 
• 3 green onions, in 1-inch pieces 
• 1 large clove garlic minced 
• 2 tsp. sesame oil 
• 1 ½ Tbs. rice vinegar 
• 1 Tbsp gochujang

1. Toss julienned daikon with 1 Tbs. salt and let sit 5 minutes to draw out the water. Rinse off salt and drain well, squeezing out excess liquid.
2. Place daikon in a large mixing bowl and sprinkle the remaining ingredients over. Toss well, rubbing the seasonings onto each piece.
3.  Check seasoning and add more salt and chili powder or gochujang to taste. Can keep up to one week, refrigerated.

The hardest (and most annoying) part of this dish is chopping up the raddish. After that it's a cake walk.  Anyway steam up some rice and in three easy steps (x2) you can have a delicious Korean-ish meal.


Enjoy!