I am so sorry. Everyone is complaining. Covid comes from China.
But in a time before this, once or twice a week (before I went mostly plant based) I went for Chinese Food for that special umami flavor you get only from Chinese Food.
And so, at home, in my plant based reality, not able to deal with beef, chicken or fish, I found myself remembering the time when, at a cheap market I bought baby back ribs at $ .99 per pound and spend 2 1/2 hours getting the ‘silk’ or white fiber and fat off the ribs. Mostly the back of the ribs is where you find the silk.
Since I live with 2 meat eating men (not for long, I can assure you, and I’ve been saying that for years and years) and they are bitterly complaining about not getting enough meat, I decided to do something about it.
How do I do it? I thought, let’s Eat Chinese at home. I immediately went on YouTube and found Flo Lum. Did we say Lum or YUM? I say YUM!
This woman taught me about the flavoring of Char Siu, or what you git when you eat Chinese Spareribs. It really is about flavor profiles. I’ve been saying that for years.
As someone who is mostly plant based and a rebellious jew, the only two items I crave and still occasionally eat are baby back and Chinese Spareribs and Shrimp. Now shrimp are bottom feeders. So if I do that 2 or 3 times a year, with 2 or 3 tiger shrimp, I would say that’s a lot. But pork is a rebellious thing for me that I have over the years come to love and crave. As a result I seriously cook it well and have to force myself to make better choices. I spend my life trying to be mindful of what I eat. But sometimes, I am overcome.
So, here I am listening to and watching Flo rock my world. Now I must say, prior to that, I kept seeing all these recipes for Instant Pot pulled pork. If that was my only choice, I would never eat pork.
But when we are talking about Red Bean Curd explaining that’s why Chinese BBQ has a red tint to it, I say… yeeaaah. Let’s do it.
Of course, I don’t have fermented red bean curd in the house. But I’m sure it’s good for me. And it adds both color and flavor. But that was not going to stop me.
In the past, there was always a red powder you can pour in the pot of pork to turn the flavors to a Char Siu…. and until I realized Red Dye was in it. Then I only ate it at restaurants, thinking somehow that would not count.
I’m just like you. I rationalize big time.
But here I am, in quarantine thinking…. I’ve gotta do something and do it fast! But guess what was giving me that great flavor? Chinese 5 spice and honey.
So I pulled out my Instant Pot, after I trimmed up the pork. I froze most of it for another day and as I trimmed, I was able to trim out thin slices of pork, without the silk, without the fat, very thin. It’s a cheap piece of meat so trimming and thinning is as important as anything you do, trying to cook this up to be flavorful and juicy.
How I started to Eat Chinese Food at Home: I did a dry rub of Chinese five spice, garlic powder, smoked paprika, (because I had no liquid smoke), white pepper, and kosher salt. The liquids I placed in the Instant Pot, after sautéing the meat covered in spices, include Amy’s Worcestershire (the cleanest you will find), a tablespoon on BBQ Sauce, soy sauce, hoisin, some honey, red wine, microplane garlic and rice wine vinegar. I put a circle of red wine, hoping that would give me the color I am seeking. Then I dared to throw in brown rice and chopped scallions.
What do you think? Corn on the cob, baby bok choy and rice with pork? The smell alone was enough to satisfy. Can you imagine this to be a comfort food? Very, very comforting.
I can’t explain that between the flavor and the smell, it really brought me back to the Chinese Restaurant. I filled myself with corn as a second vegetable and I will say that I was more than reasonably happy. And so was everyone in the household. And there was hardly any pork in the dish.
I’ve gone on to order Red Bean Paste on Amazon. That comes Monday and once it does, I plan to pull out the rest of the roast and see what I can do with it.
I do know I plan on taking small pieces of that roast and inserting that into the egg rolls I make. What a wonderful flavor without much protein that will make!
And that’s how I see my vegan world. Inclusive. We have to respect each others choices and figure out how to satisfy cravings, without necessarily becoming a meat eater, if that’s our choice.
When I talked about this to someone I consider to be more than an acquaintance, about going to places where we can all eat, meat eaters and not, her vegan militant response was “I hate you”. My answer was: lol. No you don’t.
But does she? Who knows. And why would that be important? Everyone is entitled to their opinion.
Healthy Happy Eating,
