LTH,

Cooked my first round of char siu. I oven roasted, according to SunDevilPeg's directions, though went to 150 F internal temp, not 160 F.



Pork was juicy with excellent flavor, but next time out I will butterfly so as to expose more surface area to the marinade.


I was tempted to attempt Iron Chef BBQ Bill/SFNM's Moo Shoo, even have flour tortillas on hand, but decided to save that for dinner tonight and make a quick sandwich with Bosnian Pita I bought yesterday at BM Bakery on Devon.


Toasted the pita, schemer of hosin, layer of char siu, sprinkle of scallion, drizzle of my chili oil. Very damn tasty.


After tasting a bit of the meat with hoisin and chili oil, I decided to go open face so to increase meat/chili oil/hosin surface ratio.


Tomorrow, when I smoke the belly, bacon and ribs I plan on making Iron Chef BBQ Bill/SFNM char siu bacon handroll. Wow did that look delicious.

Thanks again to SunDevilPeg for posting the recipe.

Enjoy,
Gary

BM Bakery
1443 W Devon
Chicago, IL 60660
773-381-1321

Gary,

I have a bad case of "slicer envy". Is that your Sabatier 12" slicer in the picture?

Evil Ronnie wrote:Gary,

I have a bad case of "slicer envy". Is that your Sabatier 12" slicer in the picture?

Evil,

Yep, 12-inches of carbon steel perfection.

Slice a tomato so thin you can read through it before serving it to your mother in-law. (Quote from Chef Tony, of Miracle Blade II TV fame, I have a very sweet mother in-law.)

Though from what I've seen you have nothing to be envious of in the knife dept, Mr. twin Misono sashimi knife.

Enjoy,
Gary

G Wiv wrote:Toasted the pita, schemer of hosin

A schmear of hoisin??? Sounds like a candidate for my new book, Fusion Gone Wild. And Chinese pork on Bosnian bread???? Someone, somewhere s rolling over in their grave, but I'm salivating.
Awesome photos, Gary-san. Can you imagine the mishegas if the two of us were turned loose in the kitchen at the same time? Sweet and sour, smoked kneidlach with kim chee tsimmes.

Bill/SFNM

Bill/SFNM wrote:

G Wiv wrote:Toasted the pita, schemer of hosin

A schmear of hoisin??? Sounds like a candidate for my new book, Fusion Gone Wild. And Chinese pork on Bosnian bread???? Someone, somewhere s rolling over in their grave, but I'm salivating.
Awesome photos, Gary-san. Can you imagine the mishegas if the two of us were turned loose in the kitchen at the same time? Sweet and sour, smoked kneidlach with kim chee tsimmes.

Bill/SFNM

Mince up some char siu and stuff em in some kreplach!

Gary:

Amata and I have gotten that Bosnian pita a couple of times (still have one in the freezer). It's fabulous stuff.

A

On the subject of knive envy, Thor's birthday gift from his Uncle Gary is likely the subject of much coveting by the other kids on the block: a childsize Misono knife. It could only have been more appropriate had it been engraved with "Baby's First Misono."

MAG wrote:On the subject of knive envy, Thor's birthday gift from his Uncle Gary is likely the subject of much coveting by the other kids on the block: a childsize Misono knife. It could only have been more appropriate had it been engraved with "Baby's First Misono."

Will it eventually be bronzed and proudly displayed next to a set of baby shoes?

During the prep process for my upcoming char siu pork belly smoking session, I came across my wife's Grandmother's solid brass morter & pestle, which I used to pulverize the star anise. This baby has been collecting dust on our storage closet for nearly 20 years, and this is the first time I have come across it. It's relatively small, yet weighs in at a hefty 8 lbs of solid brass. I have a feeling that it will make it into heavy rotation now that it has been rediscovered.

Antonius wrote:Gary:

Amata and I have gotten that Bosnian pita a couple of times (still have one in the freezer). It's fabulous stuff.

A

Antonious,

Completely agree. Everything from a vehicle for char siu to on-the-go PB and J.

My latest Bosnian pita creation, when we got home this evening, was pan toasted with a little olive oil, layer of Union Star Habenero Muenster and a few slices of Char Siu pork belly I made earlier today.



No pictures of the sandwich, it was but a memory before I even remembered I owned a camera.

Enjoy,
Gary

Bill/SFNM wrote:A schmear of hoisin??? Sounds like a candidate for my new book, Fusion Gone Wild. And Chinese pork on Bosnian bread???? Someone, somewhere s rolling over in their grave, but I'm salivating.
Awesome photos, Gary-san. Can you imagine the mishegas if the two of us were turned loose in the kitchen at the same time? Sweet and sour, smoked kneidlach with kim chee tsimmes.

Bill/SFNM

Iron Chef BBQ,

Speaking of kimchee.......

I might win the Fusion Gone Wild prize today. Lunch was Rosmarino pasta mixed with kimchee and sliced char siu pork tenderloin. A little El Yucateco tossed in for good measure.



Next week is your Sweet and sour, smoked kneidlach with kim chee tsimmes with a side of EatChicago's char siu kreplach. If I really get stumped I can always make my old standby, gefilte fish with raspberry coulis.

Enjoy,
Gary

Ultimo,

I love it that the platter is spread before your keyboard, as though you were so excited, you had to rush to your office, shoot it, eat it, and write about it (more or less in that order).

Hammond

Can't tell you how tickled pink I am that you all are so fond of this little gem of a recipe. God and Julia Child (redundant?) bless Somi Anuntra Miller, the author of that fine cookbook in which I found it. If my house ever catches fire, that will be one of the things I grab, no doubt.

I can't speak a lick of Thai, so this will have to do:

Buen provecho a todos!

LTH,

Made my second round of Char Siu yesterday, a nice hunk of skin-on pork belly, labeled bacon* at Chicago Food. With apologies to Iron Chef BBQ Bill/SFNM I oven roasted the pork.


In a word, Fantastic, thanks again SunDevilPeg and thanks Iron Chef BBQ Bill/SFNM for the idea of using pork belly.


Excellent flavor, though as soon as I tasted the pork I though, man-o-man would this be good smoked.


Next time the smoker for my belly!

Enjoy,
Gary

* This was fresh bacon, not cured. (raw/green/unprocessed)

Gary--

The color on the oven roasted version is spectacular. The cross hatch cut reminded me of a giant Magret duck breast...which I bet this recipe would work really well with. Mini-duck char siu's...


trixie-pea

Yikes! I've just gotten in on this thread--does it look good, or what, your char siu! OK, I've got a pork butt in the freezer whose destiny is now set. I'll roll cut it a bit, and ultimately smoke it. Yummy!

Now, two questions (I'm new to the group): Folks are talking about "LTH" as the name of a Chinese restaurant. Sounds good: what's the name? I've found a place in Madison that'll work with me for a banquet menu; but it would be nice to find a place in Chicago to visit.

Secondly, is there available the recipe for the kim chee you all have mentioned several times in this thread?

I'm a nut about Chinese food. I've lived and taught there--twice, in WuHan--and can't get enough of them eats.

Tnx,
Geo

OK, now it's my turn. I smoked what was probably a 5 - 6 lb pork belly (after removing the ribs). I put it on the WSM for around 5:45. The skin came out quite crispy and delicious. If anything, I would leave it on the smoker a little less time next time.

Raw Pork Belly


After Smoking


Sliced


After shooting my pictures, I noticed that Gary had sliced his belly with the grain, producing better looking slices than my against the grain technique. I'll probably slice the rest of it with the grain.

Nice work steve. Did you use some of those thin mints in the marinade or as a palette cleanser?

eatchicago wrote:Nice work steve. Did you use some of those thin mints in the marinade or as a palette cleanser?

I was thinking about pulverizing them ala Chef GEB.

stevez wrote:If anything, I would leave it on the smoker a little less time next time.

Stevez,

I think the black skin is a sign of a possible problem. When I smoke any kind of pork, I aim for a nice deep gold-red color. I don't use a WSM, but bark that color can be a sign of incomplete fuel combustion or too much heat in the presence of sugar. I only bring this up because you imply the flavor was too smoky.

Bill/SFNM

In answer to Geo's questions (which are probably held by a number of new folks here), here's a quote from an old post of mine:

LTH stands for "Look, the Hessians!" and refers to the fact that we first all got to know each other as Revolutionary War reenactors. (Thanks to Vital Information for his suggested acronym.)

Seriously, the cryptic initials are the name of a restaurant. Or rather, they're not. It refers to "Little" Three Happiness, the smaller and better (by far) of two restaurants in Chinatown with that name, which is universally recognized as the best restaurant in Chinatown and maybe even in Chicago, except by the people who don't think it's very good at all. It's the Three Happiness on the south side of the street (hence the site's working title, TTHOTSSOTSForum.com). (Don't look for the word "little" on either one.)

But the better explanation is the one on our LTHForum business cards, written by me but the initial thought was Cathy2's:

What does "lthforum" mean?

LTH stands for "Little" Three Happiness, a Chinatown storefront which one of the site's founders thinks is the best restaurant in Chicago. Others happen to disagree, but the point of the name isn't to honor one restaurant--it's to pay tribute to the little happinesses waiting to be discovered in restaurants all over the city, and to honor the spirit that seeks to share them with strangers online.

Do a search for Little Three Happiness (be sure to click "search for all terms") and you'll find lots of great posts about it suggesting very specific dishes and even ways to ask for them (like "extra crispy"). However, it is far, far from the only good Chinese restaurant around town, so be sure to look up places like Ed's Potsticker House, Spring World, Lao Sze Chuan, Fabulous Noodles, Hong Min, Moon Palace, etc., too.

Bill/SFNM wrote:

stevez wrote:If anything, I would leave it on the smoker a little less time next time.

Stevez,

I think the black skin is a sign of a possible problem. When I smoke any kind of pork, I aim for a nice deep gold-red color. I don't use a WSM, but bark that color can be a sign of incomplete fuel combustion or too much heat in the presence of sugar. I only bring this up because you imply the flavor was too smoky.

Bill/SFNM

No Bill. I don't think I said it was too smoky. When I said that it was in too long it was because the meat had started to dry out a little bit more that optimal. Don't get me wrong, it didn't completely dry out or anything, it was just slightly past optimal. The black color is, as you thought, caused by the large amount of sugar in the marinade, not by a dirty burning fire. I pride myself on my fire control technique and I can guarantee that there was nothing but thin blue smoke coming from my WSM. All of the other stuff I cooked at the same time did not get blackened. The duck kebabs, spares and loin back ribs came out perfectly, along with the feta and garlic stuffed jalapenos.

My Dinner Plate

stevez wrote:The black color is, as you thought, caused by the large amount of sugar in the marinade, not by a dirty burning fire. I pride myself on my fire control technique and I can guarantee that there was nothing but thin blue smoke coming from my WSM. All of the other stuff I cooked at the same time did not get blackened. The duck kebabs, spares and loin back ribs came out perfectly, along with the feta and garlic stuffed jalapenos.

Stevez,

The duck kabobs look awesome!

Regarding the black color: I used sundevilpeg's formula, including the palm sugar, and got a nice mahagony color. Wonder what the difference is? I run an offset pit using smalll pecan logs.

Bill/SFNM

Bill/SFNM wrote:

stevez wrote:The black color is, as you thought, caused by the large amount of sugar in the marinade, not by a dirty burning fire. I pride myself on my fire control technique and I can guarantee that there was nothing but thin blue smoke coming from my WSM. All of the other stuff I cooked at the same time did not get blackened. The duck kebabs, spares and loin back ribs came out perfectly, along with the feta and garlic stuffed jalapenos.

Stevez,

The duck kabobs look awesome!

Regarding the black color: I used sundevilpeg's formula, including the palm sugar, and got a nice mahagony color. Wonder what the difference is? I run an offset pit using smalll pecan logs.

Bill/SFNM

I used white sugar in mine. That could have been it. Also, looking at the picture again, it didn't come out as black as the picture looks. There were mostly shades of dark brown, although defininatly darker than mahogany. I think if I had taken it off earlier it might not have darkened so much. In any event, it tastes great.

Hi,

I noticed Gary and Steve bought their pork bellies from Chicago Food or from Chinatown, is there a reason for this? Peoria Packing has pork bellies as well, which I know you both use as well. My experience buying pork bellies is just about null, outside of slabs of bacon, so I am wondering why you aimed for the Asian markets.

Thanks!

For me, it was because the opportunity presented itself after a meal at Spring World.

Cathy2 wrote:Peoria Packing has pork bellies as well, which I know you both use as well. My experience buying pork bellies is just about null, outside of slabs of bacon, so I am wondering why you aimed for the Asian markets.

Cathy,

Like Steve, I did not aim, for me Chicago Food Corp was simply more convenient than Peoria Packing that day.

Enjoy,
Gary

LTH,

I completed, with thanks to SunDevilPeg and Iron Chef BBQ Bill/SFNM, my third round of Char Siu on Sunday, a slab of spare ribs and smallish pork belly. I also smoked a couple of skewers of ChiNOLA's duck/jalapeno/bacon, which go right into my summer smoking line-up.



Both the spare ribs and pork belly were in the marinade for approximately 72-hours. I added a tablespoon of very fresh crushed red peppers to the spare rib marinade.


The pork belly was excellent, though as it was on the small side I only smoked it 4-hours, next time I do pork belly I will smoke it at least 6-hours, irrespective of size.


I felt the crushed red pepper enhanced the spare rib marinade, but 72-hours was too long. The meat had stared to break down a bit and was, if not mushy, just on the cusp. I was looking for a firmer chew from the spare ribs, though these might appeal to the fall-off-the-bone crowd.


ChiNOLA's duck/jalapeno/bacon was a winner, my neighbor and his son were over and gave them a solid 4-thumbs-up.


Next chapter of SunDevilPeg's Char Siu is going to be duck, which Trixi-Pea suggested earlier in the thread. Speaking of duck, when I had the smoker fired up I also tossed in a couple of duck legs. No brine or marinade, just a little salt/pepper and into the smoker.


Speaking of the next chapter of as the Char Siu Turns, with this round I used light brown sugar, next time out I will try palm sugar.

I hope to try Bill/SFNM's smoked char siu pork belly Moo Shoo later this week, If so I will be sure to post pictures.

Enjoy,
Gary

Gary,

I hadn't thought of wrapping the duck and peppers together as you did. Duh. Next time, my duck kebobs will be made this way. I agree, they are a solid winner. Thanks again ChiNOLA.

Hi,

I smoked last week my Char Siu, tasted it to find it more than acceptable, then tabled it until today due to illness.

When considering lunch today, I didn't have any flour tortillas in the house to pull apart to make Chinese doilies. So Moo Shu Pork using the Char Siu marinated and smoked pork bellies wasn't yet to be.

I was still uncertain what to cook so I flipped through epicurious.com and foodtv.com. At Foodtv.com I found my inspiration of Franconian Sausages and Sauerkraut. Inspiration does not mean I did it precisely as conceived. I was looking for lunch and not an afternoon's project making sausages, though I have copied it for a rainy day. Instead, I zeroed in on the sauerkraut with some substantitive differences.

Off-the-Shelf Franconian-ish Sauerkraut

In 2 tablespoons of butter, sorry no goose fat, I cooked 2 medium-large sliced onions until they began to brown.

I added 24 ounces sweet and sour red cabbage allowing it to warm for five minutes.

I then added 6 tablespoons dry Vermouth, 2 tablespoons water, 6 juniper berries and 8 ounces of Char Siu marinated and smoked pork belly, which I sliced thinly they cut into 3/4 inch sections. I put a lid on this to simmer for 30 minutes. At 30 minutes, I added another 2 tablespoons of Vermouth before serving five minutes later.

Certainly, there was time to make spaetzle, which would have been a reasonable accompaniment. Instead, I rescued potatoes before they began to sprout to make mashed potatoes.

What I like about meals of this type, the cooking odors are just as good as the meal itself and are part of the living memory afterwards.

Regards,