Still working on the NYE contribution. Decided that even though there'll be plenty of food, the char siu could use an accompaniment. So, I made a quick vinegar-pickle to go with it . . .
Pickle Mise En Place & Matsubara Ginsan Damascus Bunka, 170mm
Granulated sugar, shallots, salt, rice vinegar, Persian cucumbers and Thai birds eye chiles.
Ajaad-Style Pickles
Even though it's the nature of the beast with an item like this, I don't love sweet, so I tried to keep the sugar to the bare minimum and I think I succeeded. I let this sit overnight and the result was a nicely vinegar'd, crispy pickle with a touch of sweet and just a hint of heat at the finish. I think they'll go well with the char siu pork.
There was also some dinner. Started by making a concoction that used up a bunch of mini tomatoes, as well as some shirodashi that popped up during a recent pantry re-org . . .
Tomato Mise En Place & Yoshikane SKD Nashiji Gyuto, 210mm
Black pepper, rice vinegar, salt, mini tomatoes, slice garlic, shirodashi, white wine and evoo.
Tomato 'Compote'
Just used wee splashes of the wine and the vinegar. Really liked the umami-smokiness of the shirodashi with the tomatoes. Looking forward to using more of it -- along with a bunch of other pantry items I'd kind of lost sight of -- in the future.
As for the planned main course, it was back to one . . .
Charcoal-Grilled Chicken Thighs
Salt, black pepper, granulated onion, granulated garlic, Hungarian sweet paprika and oregano.
Plated Up
With spicy-sweet cucumber salad, leftover/reheated chana masala.
Now, back to that char siu. A friend told me that I was way overthinking it by going sous vide>grill. He was pretty insistent that the oven/basting method Daddy Lau demonstrates his youtube video will produce a tender and tasty result. I didn't necessarily disagree but also really love the additional flavor that cooking over charcoal imparts. But quick-grilled pork shoulder will not be tender, so I think that some sort of interim step is necessary if one wants to charcoal-grill it. Still, after ~24 hours marinating -- and before the sous vide would begin -- I diverted one log of pork shoulder to the oven, where I cooked it Daddy Lau-style. 425F for ~50 minutes, basting/turning it every 15 minutes. Not surprisingly, the result was pretty darned terrific . . .
Char Siu Pork & Yoshikane SKD Nashiji Gyuto, 210mm (oven-cooked tester piece)
Not a damned thing wrong with this. In fact, it was ready right around the same time as the chicken and I ended up eating mostly this for dinner and putting the chicken back on the platter. Still, I'm going forward with the sous vide (20 hours @ 145F, in progress now) > charcoal grill because I've already done it successfully a couple of times that way. Not only do I know it works but it turns out great. That said, if anything goes wrong, I'll be kicking myself for not just ovening it. We shall see . . .
