Feral Cooks

Good food shouldn't be tame

Pork Pancakes

May 26, 2023 By Karl Leave a Comment

I ran across this recipe for pork pancakes on an obscure, now defunct, food blog operated out of a community kitchen in Vancouver.

I had never heard of these before, and they intrigued me. I departed from the recipe they had listed, using it as a basic guide for wrapping the meat and frying the pancakes.

They turned out really nice, and I strongly recommend making these. They’re almost like a version of Japanese niku-man.

What you’ll need for 6 pancakes

  • 500g (about 2 cups) all-purpose flour
  • 1t instant yeast
  • 250ml (1 cup) water
  • 1 lbs ground pork
  • 0.5t five-spice powder
  • 2-3t Korean barbecue sauce, or a similar Asian-style sauce that you like
  • 1 small shallot or 0.5 onion, finely chopped
  • 5 fresh or dried shiitake mushroom, finely chopped (follow reconstitution instructions, if dried)
  • Splash of sake, mirin or white cooking wine—optional)
  • pork floss (also called yuk sung, pork sung or bak hu)—optional
  • sesame seeds for topping—optional—I didn’t use because I’m not a fan of them
Pork floss. Looks weird, but it’s just shredded and dehydrated pork.

What to do

Add the flour to a medium-size bowl. Now, add the yeast to a cup of 100-degree water. Mix the yeast into the water, then add the water/yeast to the flour and mix well. If the dough is too dry, add about 1t of water at a time until you can knead the dough without it sticking, until it is soft and smooth. Put the dough into an oiled bowl, cover it with plastic and let the dough rise for at least an hour. While the dough is rising, prepare the filling.

In a medium bowl, combine the ground pork, five-spice powder, Korean barbecue sauce, shallot, mushrooms and sake, if using. Don’t be afraid to use your hands to get everything mixed properly. When it’s mixed, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate. You could also mix the filling 24 hours ahead of time so the flavors can meld.

When the dough has risen, knead it again for a few minutes. Weigh the dough and divide it into 6 equal-weight pieces shaped into balls. They should be about 130g, each. Cover the balls with plastic wrap and let them rest for 10 minutes.

Now for assembling the pancakes. Here’s what to do for each one:

1. Roll out a dough ball on a work surface (floured, depending on the surface) into a disk about 10 inches in diameter.

2. Spread 65-70g of meat across the surface of the disk. Top with pork floss, if using.

3. Cut a slit from the center of the disk to the edge, then move some of the meat away from the slit (you’ll see why when you roll them—if the meet is up to the edge, it will come out of the pancake).

4. Roll the dough along the circumference of the disk to form a cone.

5. The meat cone will look like this when fully rolled.

6. Stand up the cone with the wide end on the bottom and gently push it down into a thick pancake. It will be a little more than an inch thick—as shown in the photos of the cooked pancakes. You could gently roll it with a rolling pin to make it thinner, if you wish.

To cook, fry the pancakes in an oiled nonstick pan over medium heat. If you have an infrared thermometer, the pan surface should be about 325 degrees F. Cook for about 5 minutes on each side. After the pancakes have browned on each side, ready a pan cover and add a few tablespoons of water to the pan, then quickly cover it. The resulting steam will help cook the meat. Cook covered, until the water has evaporated.

Check for doneness with an instant-read thermometer. Fully cooked would be about 160-165 degrees in the middle.

You could also bake these in a 400-degree F oven on a sheet pan for about 10-15 minutes. Brush each side with oil and flip halfway through the cooking time. Again, test for doneness with an instant-read thermometer.

Serve hot or warm. Eat with a knife and work or cut them into slices like a pizza.

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Caramelized Black-Pepper Chicken

May 19, 2023 By Karl Leave a Comment

Wow, right when I posted this, I accidentally learned that this recipe is already on the blog. I’ll post it again, anyway. The photos are better with this version.

————

Here’s a pretty good chicken dish that’s really easy to make. It’s based on a Food & Wine recipe.

I really wouldn’t call this “caramelized,” in the sense of traditional caramelization because the sugar is actually cooking in a liquid. Not sure how that actually “caramelizes” it. Please note in the comments if you think different.

Caramelization or not, this is a great weekday dish to serve over rice or Asian noodles.

What you’ll need

  • 0.5 cups dark brown sugar, palm sugar or raw sugar
  • 3 – 4T fish sauce (nam pla)
  • 0.25 cups water
  • 3T mirin or rice vinegar
  • 1t minced garlic
  • 1t ginger grated on a microplane/zester
  • 0.5t ground pepper
  • 1 or 2 Thai chiles, halved, lengthwise or dried red chiles (remove some of the seeds to tone down the heat, if needed)
  • 1T neutral oil
  • 1 shallot or half an onion thinly sliced
  • 1 lb. skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces
  • Cilantro sprigs, as an optional garnish

What to do

Thoroughly combine the sugar, fish sauce, water, mirin/rice vinegar, garlic, ginger, pepper and chiles in a small bowl. Set aside.

Heat the oil over medium heat in a wok or large frypan and sauté the shallot until softened—about 4 minutes. Mix in the fish sauce/sugar mixture and chicken, then simmer over medium-high heat until the chicken is cooked through—10 or so minutes.

Serve hot over rice or noodles.

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Taiwanese-style Braised Pork Belly

May 12, 2023 By Karl Leave a Comment

I love pork belly, but I haven’t made it for the blog in a long time. This is a very easy recipe that tastes wonderful.

To me, the key spice is the five-spice powder, which imparts a nice complexity to the dish.

This goes well over white or jasmine rice.

What you’ll need

  • 1 pound pork belly, cut into small to mid-size strips
  • Cooking oil for sautéing the pork belly
  • One small onion or 4 medium shallots, roughly chopped
  • 5 or 6 shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and roughly chopped (the shrooms, not the stems). If reconstituting dried shiitake, reserve the soaking liquid.
  • 2 or 3 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1 or 2 pinches of ground white, black or Szechuan pepper
  • 1t five-spice powder
  • 0.75 cups sake or Asian cooking wine
  • 0.33 cups dark soy sauce—if you have only one kind of soy sauce, don’t sweat it.
  • 0.33 cups light soy sauce
  • 20g brown sugar, chopped palm sugar or raw sugar
  • 1.5 cups (about one standard can) mushroom, chicken or vegetable stock
  • 1 cup mushroom soaking water, optional
  • Hard-boiled eggs, optional, as an accompaniment
  • Blanched whole spinach leaves, optional as an accompaniment

What to do

Heat a wok or large frypan over medium heat and add a bit of cooking oil. When the wok heats up, sauté the pork belly—stirring often—until it is slightly browned and the fat starts to render.

Move the pork belly aside, then add the shallot/onion and sauté it for a few minutes, followed by the mushrooms for another two minutes of sautéing. Now add the garlic and sauté it for a minute. Be careful that the garlic doesn’t scorch; scorched garlic will ruin the dish.

Add the five-spice powder, pepper, sake, the soy sauces and the sugar. Stir until thoroughly mixed. Now add the stock and mushroom soaking liquid, if using.

Bring the mixture to a boil, then quickly lower the heat, cover it and let it simmer for about 30 minutes. The longer you simmer it, the more tender the pork belly supposedly gets, but I’m skeptical of that. 30 minutes will fully cook it.

Serve over rice with hard-boiled eggs and blanched greens.

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Feral Cooks was developed by Karl and Philip, two expats who were introduced to each other by their wives while living in Japan.  Learn more →

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