Cost of a grilled pork chop

I love pork chops and recently been enjoying inch think juicy ones that are brined for at least a day. My pork chop roots though are for thin ones that are marinated in oyster sauce, fish sauce, onions, lemongrass, and garlic. That is the basic recipe my mom and countless other Vietnamese moms make for their kids.

The other day I was really craving the pork chop mom use to make and I got some on sale at Kroger. My marinade for two pounds of pork chops is

½ a cup of oyster sauce

1 teaspoon of fish sauce

½ an onion finely chopped

1 squeezed orange (we had bought a big box so I used it for some acid and citrus)

2 cloves of garlic finely chopped

Anyway I also made some Thai cucumber salad which really is just pickled cucumbers

1 seedless cucumber

1/3 cup of rice wine vinegar (but distilled is fine)

1/3 sugar

1 Shallot finely chopped

1 teaspoon of salt

½ teaspoon of fish sauce

1 chili pepper sliced

I love pickled vegetables with savory meats. I had finished some work and heated the grill in the backyard for the pork chops. I was in my usual attire of a t-shirt and shorts even though it was about 35 degrees outside. I brought the pork chops outside and closed the door. The beautiful sound of meat sizzling greeted me as I put each chop on the grill, the smell was awesome. Happy with the way the grilling started I tried to get back inside. The door was locked. I tried again. Still locked. Hmmm, I started to notice I was in a t-shirt and shorts it was getting pretty cold, being barefoot did not help either. I started to think about ways to break into my own house and usually there was a window I would forget to lock etc, but Nhung is super paranoid and every single window was locked. I made a pretty silly sight outside at one in the afternoon in a t-shirt and shorts with no shoes. I went to my immediate neighbors and no one was home. My uncle lived down the street but it was getting cold so I tried the door of my Muslim neighbor, I had noticed that a truck was parked our front. As I rang the doorbell I started to think what normal person would open the door for such a sight especially a woman. As I turned to leave the door open and a man with a slightly apprehensive look greeted me. I explained my situation and he got me a phone and invited me inside. I left out the grilled pork chops part. I called my sister and she came and got me and my aunt got there later who had my house key. The first thing I did was start back up the grill and made my pork chops needless to say they were delicious.

Thanksgiving

Here is my menu and thoughts for Thanksgiving.

I am using a recipe from Anne Burrell of the Food Network for the turkey..

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/anne-burrell/brined-herb-crusted-turkey-with-apple-cider-gravy-recipe/index.html

But I am giving it a small Vietnamese twist. In the brine I am going to add a little fish sauce probably a table spoon to see if it gives a little kick. This is all going to be a experiment with my family as the guinea pigs. I am also going to add some Vietnamese mint and Thai basil to the herb butter mix from my garden. And here is the really scary part instead of chicken stock because Vinh is allergic I am going to add Coconut soda that I use to braise our pork belly recipe and numerous other dishes. This is going to be the toughest part I am not sure of the combination but worse case scenario no gravy.

I am taking the Turkey out of the freezer today and let it defrost. Sunday I am going to start the brining. Wednesday night I am going to the next to last step with the herb butter and veggies. I am going to add a little ginger and daikon to the veggie mix for the gravy and aromatic of the turkey.

My sides are going to mashed potatoes and stuffing. I am searching for a good stuff recipe that I can add some Vietnamese ingredients too. I think it is going to be Anne Burrell recipe as well from her Thanksgiving show. I am going to take the base of the recipe and add Chinese sausage instead. For dessert I am going to try and make an Asian pear pie from a simple apple pie recipe with my own pie crust.

On a side note I found out we are having Thanksgiving at my mother in law for lunch so I am going to have to work on my catering skills  at least I have a mini van. I should be nice a tired to watch the Cowboy games at my parents where thank goodness I am only going to make dessert.

Here is the recipe I am will be messing with.

Ingredients
Brine:
• 7 quarts water
• 1 quart apple cider
• 3/4 cup kosher salt
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 large or 2 small carrots, diced
• 3 ribs celery, diced
• 1 head garlic, cut in 1/2 equatorially
• 1/2 bunch fresh rosemary
• 1/2 bunch fresh sage
• 6 bay leaves
• 1 (12 to 14 pound) turkey, free range organic is great!
Herb crust:
• 1 bunch fresh rosemary, leaves finely chopped
• 1 bunch fresh sage, leaves finely chopped
• 3 sticks butter, room temperature
• Kosher salt
Gravy:
• 1 large onion, cut into 1/2-inch dice
• 1 large or 2 small carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice
• 2 ribs celery, cut into 1/2-inch dice
• 4 cloves garlic, smashed
• 2 Granny Smith apples, cut into 1/2-inch dice
• 5 bay leaves
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 bunch thyme
• Kosher salt
• 1 quart chicken stock, divided
• 2 cups apple cider, divided
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
Directions
Special equipment: butcher's twine
To brine the turkey: Combine all of the ingredients for the brine in a large container. Add the turkey and let it brine in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 days.
To prepare the turkey for cooking: Remove the turkey from the brine the night before roasting and pat it thoroughly dry with paper towels. Combine the rosemary, sage, and butter for the herb crust in a small bowl. Season, to taste, with kosher salt. Work the butter under the skin of the turkey and massage it into the breasts and the legs. Massage the butter on the outside of the skin as well. Tie the legs together over the breast so they will protect it during cooking and help keep it moist and juicy.
Gravy preparation: Put the onions, carrots, celery, garlic, apples, bay leaves, cinnamon stick and thyme in a roasting pan and season with salt. Arrange the turkey on top of the veggies and refrigerate overnight UNCOVERED! Yes, that's right, uncovered. This will help the skin dry out and become really brown and crispy. Make sure that there is no raw food near the turkey in the refrigerator. After refrigerating overnight, the turkey is ready to go in the oven.
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
Put 2 cups chicken stock and 1 cup apple cider in the bottom of the roasting pan. Roast the turkey in the preheated oven until the skin gets really nice and brown, about 40 minutes. Lower the oven heat to 350 degrees F for the remainder of the cooking time. Baste the turkey every 30 minutes or so and add more stock to the roasting pan, if needed. Cook about 17 minutes per pound. Once it gets to the proper color, tent the turkey with aluminum foil to prevent it from getting too dark.
Remove the turkey from the oven when an instant-read thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the turkey registers 160 degrees F. Make sure that the thermometer is not touching a bone when doing the reading. When the turkey has reached the proper temperature, remove it from the roasting pan to a cutting board and let it rest for at least 30 minutes. Cover loosely with aluminum foil.
Strain all the veggies over a bowl to separate them from the stock/mixture. Discard the veggies. Skim off the fat and add it to the roasting pan. This is the fat for the roux. Put the roasting pan over 2 burners and over a low heat and whisk in the flour. Cook until the mixture looks like wet sand, about 4 to 5 minutes. Slowly whisk in the remaining 1 cup apple cider, remaining chicken stock and the stock/cider mixture. Cook until the mixture has thickened and reached a gravy consistency. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Pour into a serving pitcher or bowl.

Back to the Beginning

As I am preparing my journey into cooking professionally I started to think what my first true experience with restaurant food was. It was when I was 8 or 9 living in Garland, Texas. We had just moved to Texas and only been in the States for about 5 years. There were only a couple of Vietnamese restaurants in the area and they were sub par to my mother’s cooking so we never went. What I do remember was this Chinese restaurant called Dinh Ho in Irving that served some amazing roasted pork and duck. It was amazing and that once a month trip was highly anticipated.

First Chinese BBQ

Roasted pork and duck are still some of my favorite dishes and I went to First Chinese BBQ in Garland on Jupiter and Walnut recently to see if I could capture that first kiss of restaurant food again. As I entered the restaurant I saw the tell tell sign of a good Chinese BBQ place; hanging meat. I could smell the smoky flavors of roasted duck, roasted pork, and Chinese bbq pork. It was a sight to see. A formidable cook with a wicked cleaver stood behind the display chopping the meat into bite size bits. He was amazing with speed and accuracy. I ordered a pound of the roasted pork and brought it home to my kids who love the stuff. As we ate it with pickled vegetables, rice, and soy sauce I savored not only the food but the connected memories.

Scared no more

I have not been writing in this blog because frankly I have been scared and embarrassed. I announced to myself and on this blog that I was going to go to culinary school. I used finances as an excuse to not going but it was because I was afraid. I was afraid I was to old and to fat. I have let my body and mind live in fear and the results are not pretty. The thing is there is still that seed, that wonderful scary seed that says this is what I love and could be my second act. Tomorrow I am going to El Centro and registering for their culinary arts program. No more excuses. I have started a real weight loss program. I am going to walk or exercise everyday for at least 20 minutes. I will not have any sodas;.I will not eat after 6pm. I will not eat any processed foods. I will accurately monitor my progress daily. That’s about all I can handle for now so hopefully I will get into cooking shape in time for classes to start in January

My Ratatouille

It has been awhile since I have been able to blog about my culinary experience because to tell the truth I have not had that many culinary experiences lately due to timing and circumstances. Here though was a great moment.

I yearn for movie like moments in life. I want to experience the feel of a high school championship like in Hoosier where a whole town comes together. I wish I could be as passionate as Rhett was to Scarlet. Feel the wind in my hair and the freedom that comes with it like in Breaking Away. One movie moment that I have been searching for has been the great epiphany in Ratatouille when Ego takes a bite of the title dish and is transported to his mother’s kitchen. It is an incredible moment that I bet every chef would love to give to his diner. Well at Nana’s in Dallas this Saturday I had that moment and it was surreal. It was also a pleasure to share it with my wife as we celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary.

The dish was Slow Roasted Berkshire Pork Belly. When I first came to the United States in 1975 there was no Vietnamese Community. The food that came closest to home was good Chinese food and one of my favorite dishes was Heo Quay or BBQ pork. The skin is crispy and with the fat layered with meat was mouth watering good. To this day it is also one of my kid’s favorite dishes. Anthony C. Bombaci the chef at Nana has given the epiphany that I yearned for. It was the same dish that I remember from childhood and it was transformed to sublime perfection. The skin was so crispy and tasted perfect, the meat and fat was perfect. It was done with a subtle sauce and there were bananas, though I have no idea how they were cooked, paired perfectly with the pork. When the dish came out my wife and I looked at each other and were shocked that such a simple everyday dish would be on the tasting menu of a fine dining restaurant but after a bite we could not stop raving. It made me SO happy there is no other way to describe it. The rest of the tasting menu was very good. I am new to fine dining though I have read and tried some great recipes this was the first time we got to go some place that offered that type of food. It was a wonderful evening with one amazing moment. Thanks so much to Nana and their incredible staff that made all this possible.

Slumdog Millionaire

I went to see Slumdog Millionaire this weekend and it was an absolutely amazing movie. I started to think about ways to describe the movie and I remembered something from Top Chef. I am new to the culinary world and foodies. Top Chef was one of the first things that brought attention to that world for me. I remember the editor of Food and Wine Dana Cowin stating that a certain dish “made me SO happy.” That stuck with me and it is the best way for me to describe the way Slumdog affected me. It made me SO happy. Everything about it; the way it was structured, the actors as children, the actors as adults, the way Millionaire was corny, everything about the movie struck a chord with me. Jamal is one of the noblest heroes in movie history.

Watching that movie for the first time is going to stick in my memory for a long time. I started to think of other great memories that involved something created that moved me so much. There are touchstones moments in my life such as the birth of my children, first love, and deaths that have become a part of my fiber. Then there are moments that I get intense pleasure from because someone created something that touched me. I remember the great meals of my life. My first bowl of Pho that Mom made. The roasted pork over steamed rice at the only good Chinese restaurant in Dallas in the late 70s and early 80s. The first time I tasted mam nem the stinky fish sauce at the behest of my wife. The dinner at the French Room on May 27, 2002 our second wedding anniversary. The dinner at Nana’s grill for my parents 20th anniversary. Someone made that food for me, someone with their hands and brain made something so memorable that I to this day can see the dish, smell the dish, and taste the dish. I will never be a great director, I will never be a great writer, I may never be a great chef, but I can make a meal my kids will never forget. I can make a meal that a dinner guest might remember. Cooking gives me a chance to maybe touch someone they way some great meals have touched me.

Sous Chef hard at work

Sous chef hard at work and Chez Huynh

Pork Chops

My favorite foodie type show is Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservation. I really like it when he travels to other countries and tries there “fast food”. Places like the food court in Singapore, Mexico, or Vietnam where one cook makes one dish. I started thinking about Dallas and its diversity. So I want to start my own little tour of my city and all it has to offer. My operating budget is a little smaller so I started at a place I eat almost every week. Saint Peter Catholic church in Dallas is an all Vietnamese parish. Every week volunteers make a small three item menu and it is delicious. I have volunteered to man the grill from 7 to 9 am. They usually serve one soup and the staple of grilled pork chops and rice. I learned a valuable cooking lesson on that grill.

The first morning it was manned by an elderly man and he was grilling up a storm. There must have been over 200 pork chops he had to get through and welcomed a new set of hands. His main concern was making sure the chop was thoroughly cooked and no one would die from his grilling. He kept muttering “got to make sure it is cooked through.” I for one hate dried pork chops so I kept sneaking some of the not so overcooked ones out to the done tray. He would catch me and mutter it was not done and put it back on the grill. I started feeling like Oscar Schindler trying to save as many pork chops as I could. I forgot to mention that these were really thin pork chops with a liberal dose of marinade. He was a good host though telling me stories of when he was a government official in Saigon and the time he spent in a reeducation camp. The grill is outside the kitchen and he told me stories of other “helpers” that could not handle the heat or cold depending on the weather. We had a good time and I asked him why he was so worried about it being cooked and then I got my answer. The door from the kitchen opened and a stern looking woman came out to the grill area. Not a word to the man or myself she just looked at the chops picked a small piece off one nodded her head and walked back to the kitchen. From then on I made sure every pork chop was cooked thoroughly.

By the way the chops tasted great when I had them after Mass. I think what I forgot is that because it was a thin chop, the marinade was really important. The marinade of garlic, oyster sauce, onions, and fish sauce really brought a great flavor to the chops. The garnishes on the plate also enhanced the humble thin chop, rice with sweet fish sauce, cucumbers, tomatoes, julienne carrots and peppers. This recipe was developed on the streets of Vietnam with just a charcoal grill and rice in a bamboo steamer as the kitchen. The fresh vegetables were prepped just before serving. Patrons ate on small stools near the portable restaurant. There was no refrigeration the owners sold till there was nothing left. The dryness was the right texture to the dish with a smoky flavor from the fat dripping on to the charcoal. This dish was perfectly recreated thousands of miles away for kids who could taste a little bit of the country their parents loved and left.

Me and my Sous Chefs

Me and my head sous chefs Vy and Vinh

Decisions decisions decisions

I have been having an internal debate with myself for the last week or so. I love cooking more every day and with the arrival of Jacque Pepin’s Complete Technique and Anthony Bourdain’s Le Halles Cookbook I am over the moon with cooking. I had planned on going to Le Cordon Bleu but a financial aid hiccup has slowed the process down. My government student loans were put on hold because of selective service saying I did not register when I was 18. I have the appropriate paper work and have started the appeal process and should be able to get the loans. The problem is that even with the loans, which is about $8,000 a year, I would still owe the school over $15,000 for the 15 month program. Le Cordon Bleu can finance the $15,000 but they are all loans and I would of course have to pay all that money back. I was all gung ho for this and ready to dive in head first but the financial aid hiccup slowed me down. My dilemma now is am I truly ready to commit myself to a business that is full of long hours on my feet in a hot kitchen at 36 with a wife and two kids? I think I am. I want to try but is it worth over $30,000 to try?

I am a snob and have always really been a snob. I have the ultimate champagne taste on a beer budget and to tell the truth it is not just any beer but the nasty cheep stuff. We are talking Old Milwaukee’s Best generic brand. Le Cordon Bleu looks like an incredible place that is all about food. Heck, the name even sounds fancy. Julia Child went to Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. (Though reading her book “My Life in France” it was not such a prestigious institution as my recruiter would have liked me to believe) They also had some really cool knives and cooking tools that they had on full display in the lobby that all students got. Still beer budget remember.

But if the goal is to get drunk, cheap beer and champagne both get me to the same place. I took a tour of El Centro Community college last week and it was nothing like Le Cordon Bleu. Le Cordon Bleu only had a culinary program the whole place smelled of stocks, roasted lambs, and baking bread. Everywhere you turned there was a student in chef’s whites or instructor in chef’s whites with the Tuscany Blue embroidery. El Centro is a community college in downtown Dallas full of recently graduated high school students that are studying a wide variety of programs. There was a pocket here or there of students in whites studying but the overwhelming majority was just teenagers looking bored and studying. The advisor took my on a tour of the kitchen and it was a friendly atmosphere. When we got back to her office we looked at my old college transcript and did an unofficial plan. It was going to cost me less than $3000 for the entire program and that is counting a budget of $500 for equipment. I get the same degree as Le Cordon Bleu. Still it has been nagging at me the entire week.

I have been thinking about why I want to go to culinary school. Is it to become an executive chef at a 4 star restaurant? Nope. My goal is to own a small restaurant that serves traditional Vietnamese dishes with great ingredients. Also I get the chance to play with food and try new dishes. Just a small place where I can cook the food I love to eat with a fun foodie atmosphere. I was thinking even Top Chef viewing parties where I can serve the dishes from last weeks episodes. Special international nights where I can cook some classic French, Italian, or Mexican dishes. BBQ specials so that I can talk my friend Chris and his father in parking their amazing smoking trailer at the restaurant and we can sell all their great BBQ. I think I need to go to culinary school to understand food better. Understand how food works. That is my goal. So El Centro College here I come this summer.


Minh

Irony

It is ironic that my first blog was about craftsmanship and pride in one’s work. My blog was so full of typos, run on sentences, and just weird structure. I will never be a great writer but that does not mean I cannot proofread my own blog. A good friend pointed out that me should by my, where should be were and there should be their just to name a few of the things I did wrong. I have always enjoyed a good book and could recognize a bad one. That does not translate into becoming a great writer but I should be able to write a blog without embarrassing myself. I was able to go back and edit some of the mistakes out. So if you ever end up in my restaurant and the peanut sauce for your spring rolls are not perfect feel free to send them back.

m

Beginnings

Beginnings


Well my foray into the culinary arts started differently than I had planned. I had enrolled in Le Cordon Bleu Dallas but was unable to start on the February term because of a financial aid hiccup that should be taken care of for the April start. Before the hiccup, I had conceived of a plan to work as an intern for a butcher in Garland, Texas. I had bought some prime sirloin there before and after years of just buying grocery store steak, I was in love. I talked to the owner David Harris, a master butcher, about an internship and at first he looked at me with some suspicion. You won’t like it he said. It takes two years of apprenticeship to become a meat cutter. I said no sir, I am going to be a culinary student and was hoping to see how meat was cut and understand the different cuts.David brightened up and say sure you should know where you food comes from.


So Tuesday morning I got my two kids to school and headed for David’s Meat Market in Garland, Texas not at all sure what to expect. I had done my homework. This was not just some crack in the wall, this was considered one of the best places to buy quality steaks and meat in the Dallas - Fort Worth Metroplex. The Dallas Morning News often calls David for a quote when they run an article about steaks and steak quality. He is referred to as the Master Butcher David Harris.

The store opens at 10 am but when I got there at 8:15 the lights were on and David and his three employees were already busy cutting up incredible looking steaks. His grandson Devon saw me first and greeted me warmly. He called out to David that Minh was here. “What men?” David asked. “No Minh, the guy that is going to work for free.” David came out and also greeted me warmly. David Harris looks like the perfect neighborhood butcher; he is big affable man with big strong arms and big hands. He waves at me to come on back to the office. He shows me were the aprons are and gets me a camouflaged cap. My favorite one has the letters PETA for People Eat Tasty Animals.

I met the rest of the crew besides Devon there is Carmela and Chad. Carmela is friendly Mexican with a welcoming smile. He was wrapping up New York Strips to put in the display case. The store is closed on Sunday and Monday so they were getting the store displays ready for the day. I started simply, hoping not to get in the way and screw anything up. I was going to wrap the steaks that had been beautifully cut in plastic wrap. I am afraid David’s plastic wrap cost might go up a little this week. Watching the others, they made it look smooth, wrapping a steak tightly and quickly. I managed to tangle up the plastic wrap put the wrong side of the steak on display but was quickly and nicely set right by Carmela. So before long I was getting the simple task done right. David showed me how to showcase the side of the steak that had less fat on it and arrange them all facing the same way on the rack. I joked I looked for the fat when buying a steak he laughed and said most people look for the leaner parts. Later in the day I started to learn the different cuts of beef. What made a porterhouse different from a T-bone. They both come from the same side but the porterhouse with a telltale almost vein like were the first 2 or 3 cuts from the side and the rest are the T-bone. I learned how to trim tenderloin and why some places charged less for tenderloin by not trimming the uneatable parts out adding almost 50% to the weight. It was a lot to take in and I still of course don’t understand a lot of things but I am really looking forward to coming back Friday morning to help them get ready for the weekend rush.


What I did learn was pride. Pride one took in one’s work and what over thirty years of a craft can show. David and Pat, his wife who can break down a side of beef like a pro, are what we are losing as stores like David’s Meat Market are being replaced by huge superstores all over this country. The store is so well kept, everything in place and super clean. When I worked there Carmela was in almost a constant state of cleaning and no waste made it to the floor. During our first break Pat brought donuts and sternly yet kindly told me to only eat the back room because it was not allowed where the meat was prepped. Chad the other member of the team, a young country boy was cleaning utensils, cutting and trimming steaks with the precision of a surgeon. Devon, who I pray carries on the tradition, watched the business with an eye for detail. He greeted customers by name asking how much ground sirloin they wanted or chili or the best damn jalapeño burger patty you ever tasted. Almost nothing went to waste, some of the trimmings went into a bin for sausage meat, a bin for stew meat, some fat was stored for making chili, and all of it was refrigerated as soon as enough was there. We talked about the best way to make a steak. (Inch and a quarter thick steaks, a cast iron skillet super hot, sear on each side for 2 minutes and into a preheated oven at 500 degrees for another 4 minutes let it rest for 5 more minutes and you get 4 star steakhouse quality medium rare steak.) How David probably did not want to sell his steaks to anyone who liked their steak well done or even medium. How he came up with his own dry rub recipe. How Pat cooked a Thanksgiving like feast last Tuesday for a visiting granddaughter that turned into a family dinner for 12. Their patty machine and sausage machine were almost artifact like but looked brand new. Uncle Bill another proud craftsman came by to chat. He is a machinist for over 40 years who helped David make new molds for his patty machine.


It is not just about nostalgia or a long lost America. It is about quality and good tasting ingredients. The reason I buy from David is his steaks taste better, his craftsmanship guarantees that. They would never sell you a bad steak, EVER. Superstores are killing America’s palate. Bland is ok as long as it is fast. But it does not have to be that way. David’s Meat Market is a testament to that. I am proud to watch them work and hopefully learn a thing or two as I start my culinary journey.

M