Recipe: Char Siu Pork (no red food coloring!)

No intro needed - here's my Char Siu pork recipe.

Ingredients
3 lb pork shoulder or pork butt (anything else will just be too dry)
1/2 cup ketchup (this is how we get the pork red without red food coloring)
1/4 cup mirin (sue me - I didn't use Chinese Shaoxing wine)
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tsp of Chinese 5 spice
1 tbsp of minced garlic
1 tsp sesame oil

Directions
1. Combine all ingredients and let sit for the ingredients to "marry"
2. Slice the pork into 3 long strips
3. In a large ziplock bag or a flat dish, pour the marinade over the pork
4. Marinate overnight but I usually marinate for 2-3 days
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. (I ALWAYS default to a convection oven setting)
6. Line a sheet pan with aluminum foil.  Place a metal rack on top of the sheet pan.  Pour water onto the sheet pan but make sure it is below the metal rack. 
7. Heat in oven for 20 minutes.  Flip the pork for another 20 minutes in the oven.
8. While the pork is in the oven, heat the marinade in a sauce pan until it thickens.  Set aside.
9. Remove the pork from the oven and turn on the broiler.
10.  Baste the pork and put under the broiler until the edges are charred/crisp to your desire. 

Let rest before slicing and serving.  Can be paired with rice, noodles, or in a Vietnamese Banh Mi sandwich.

Bon appetit!

Recipe: Lemon Garlic Shrimp

Inspired by the shrimp trucks we sampled in Maui when we last visited paradise in 2017, here's my own take of lemon garlic shrimp.  (Note: The shrimp trucks in Hawaii normally serve this plate with a scoop of coleslaw as well.  Anybody who knows me knows I hate vegetables so....)

Ingredients
12 LARGE shrimp per person
3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 - 3/4 cup shrimp stock (chicken stock will do)
NOTE: I make my own shrimp stock
garlic salt
black pepper
cayenne pepper
Juice of half a lemon

Instructions
1. Season the shrimp with garlic salt, pepper, and as much cayenne pepper as you can handle.
2. Heat the olive oil and butter
3. Coat the shrimp in the flour and shake off excess flour.
4. Sear both sides of the shrimp but leave them slightly undone.
5. Add the shrimp stock and lemon juice.
6. Add 1 tbsp of the flour to the stock.  The sauce should thicken.

Serve with a scoop of rice, a scoop of mac n cheese, and a scoop of cole slaw for an authentic Hawaiian shrimp truck feel.

Recipe: Tuna Poke

I've tried making poke a number of times with varying ingredients and amounts of each ingredients.  I literally swapped out the honey for brown sugar this time around and it delivered!  In fact, the boyfriend said it was his favorite poke I've made.  That can ONLY mean I need to share the recipe!

Ingredients
1/2 lb sushi grade tuna, cubed
1/3 cup Japanese soy sauce
3 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon Himalayan pink salt

Garnish:
cubed avocado
cubed crisp mango
tobiko
pokekake

Directions
1. Combine all marinade ingredients and let the marinade "marry" for a couple of minutes.  
2. Pour the marinade over the tuna.
3. Top some white rice the cubed avocado and mango.
4. Next, top with the tuna sashimi.
5. Garnish with pokekake and tobiko

Bon appetit!