Pulled Pork Al Pastor Style

Heyo! I did not die or somehow got eliminated from the face of the earth! I was just having way too much fun to cook anything decent. That, and I also made a bunch of culinary flops not worth sharing. But now I'm back and hopefully to stay. Let's see if I can get my creative juices flowing and cooking again.

A quick back story of why this is "Pulled Pork Al Pastor Style" and not just "Pulled Pork" or "Al Pastor Taco": the boyfriend really likes al pastor tacos but we're trying to eat less carbs because we are getting fat. So I can't make al pastor tacos, I decided to make the al pastor meat anyway but instead of chopping it up in cubes and fry them, I'd just make it pulled pork. I'm a genius, I know.

Stuffed Eggplant

I saw this Stuffed Miso Eggplant recipe over at Steamy Kitchen and decided that it was easy enough for me to make. In fact, it was so easy that I made it twice now.

Velvet Pork Stir Fry

My boyfriend asked me if know how to velvet meat. The answer to that question was "No, who do you think I am? Some kind of fancy pants chef?" Nevertheless, it isn't a bad idea to learn to velvet meat, so I looked it up. I got this recipe from Serious Eats.

Tonkotsu Ramen With Braised Pork Belly

I basically have nothing great going on in my life so I made tonkotsu ramen with homemade broth. Tonkotsu ramen is pork bone ramen; that is, ramen noodle floating in broth made from freaking pork bones. Do not be confused with tonkatsu which is a pork cutlet which I have no idea how to make.

Pulled Pork

First off, I have a few of apologies that I need to get out of the way; but I have a peace offering in the form of a cat picture.

1. I'm so sorry for neglecting this blog.

2. I'm so sorry for not having a pretty final product photo for this recipe. The reason being is that I was getting ready for finals, so I planned to cook a pot full of pulled pork to feed myself for at least 2 or 3 days. The way it actually turned out was that when it was finished, I got so hungry that I ate all of the pork in one day. Then I spent the other days starving.

3. I'm sorry, Helen, for making you do all of the updating!

Spicy Italian Sausage & Lentil Soup

I was talking to the Chopping Block about lentil soup earlier and how we find it rather bland. So I decided to try to liven this soup up with some spice and lots and lots of meat. Okay, so maybe this is more like a hearty sausage soup with a dash of lentils, but whatever, it's all good. I made this soup twice, once with some Italian sausages from the butcher and once with some pre-cooked sausages from the deli aisle. I recommend the butcher stuff. The photo above was with the pre-cooked stuff.

Pork Lettuce Wraps

Pork. Pork pork pork pork. I don't think I eat much pork. Oh wait, yes I do. I eat a lot of the Chopping Block's Lemongrass Pork Chops, bacon, some barbecue pork, some roast pork and .... more bacon. But you see, there's not a whole lot of ground pork in the mix. To be honest, I bought the ground pork to make some fish paste & pork patties. Sounds gross? Eh. I can't tell you because I decided to make this dish instead.

Pork Chops

Hey hey, kiddos! Sorry I that I haven't posted in such a long time! It's just that I've been making a lot of "flops," and it's just too embarrassing to post.

Vietnamese pork chops

Everyone should thank my mom for showing me how to make this awesome caramel-y pork chops. Not to boast about my mom or anything, but seriously, dude, they are my favorite pork chops in the world!