ChezJJP       food. brooklyn. eat.

This is the real deal. The recipe was jotted down furiously in a Thai home kitchen amidst tear gas-like fumes given off by frying curry pastes and bottomless cups of chilled red Aussie wine. It's easy, so head on over to Chinatown to stock up on the ingredients (Mosco street has a good Thai foods supplier) and enjoy the bold flavors that you can get from such a simple assembly.

I asked my wonderful hosts about the use of any kind of broth in the soup, and was advised that this step was completely optional and according to taste. The one I sampled was perfect, and did certainly not need any broth. Why make your life more complicated. Forget the broth.

Swinging by the Greenmarket at Grand Army Plaza yesterday, I saw those Asian Pears.

You gotta love these things. They pack incredible flavor with a texture that offers a bit of grainy, and a ton of crunch, and chewiness, and above an incredible amount of sweet, sweet, juice. I just thought to myself - hey, pear + pork = good. the result is inspired from seeing Spanish Chef Joan Roca perform some stunning things, and a pressed pork belly technique that looks real nice on the plate.

Be advised that this is a really involved recipe that can take 3 days to make.

The boned pork shoulder from Whole Foo's comes nicely wrapped in this funky elastic netting which I'll admit makes it a nice unform bundle with some good weight on it.

The idea is to make some pulled pork without using the grill, and for this, a nice heavy dutch oven will do the trick. You will need season the sucker with whatever you wish (salt, pepper, garlic granules in this case)  and give it a good sear on all sides (this step is optional, but if you want some good gravy, don't skip it).

Then take it out and throw a bunch of onions and brown mustard seeds in there.

Add a nice liberal amount of vinegar, then throw the whole thing with the lid on at 250 degrees F and go to sleep. The next morning, yank it out and let it sit in the fridge duing the whole day while you're at work.

When you get home, take it out, pull the pork, separate the onions (keep these handy), and remix the gravy with the pork while you heat it slowly so that your shoulder is nice and flavorful.

Then, pile the pork on potato buns, top with more gravy and onions, and enjoy!

The tri-tip. Probably best known as a favorite for grilling over vine wood in Central Californian vinyeards.
 

I learned about the wonderful tri-tip in Montreal at my favorite butcher on Roy and St. Laurent called Alim Pot. The venerable Portuguese owners would wax poetic about the joys of "Picanha", the Portuguese/Brazilian name for tri-tip, which is found at the very bottom of the bottom sirloin, wedged between the flank (belly) and the round (backside) of the steer. This piece is usually 1.5 lbs to 3 lbs on the larger side, and so should feed about 3-5 people, depending on how you like to portion. Its also a great meal for 2 with some leftovers for lunch the next day.

In our little experiment here, purchased in Brooklyn at Los Paisanos, we are working with prime Angus beef, with a salt and pepper rub, and a hot grill full of applewood and natural hardwood charcoal, which has burned down to a nice even hotbed and is ready to heat the meat which will be sitting about 4-5 inches above it.

Sometimes you just get a craving for a lot of sea creatures in a little bowl.

The reason why we blanch some of the seafood in this recipe is to speed up the cooking process. If you are not in a hurry, you could skip the blanching, add straight to the lime juice and let it sit for about 2 hours.