All posts by epicureasian

a gardening gamer girl in search of good grub
Dining, Recipes

The Fried Onion Experiment Part 1

Labor Day holiday weekend ended a five-day fast, followed by another 2 weeks of unrepentant feasting, with a couple days of fasting scattered in between. During this time, I spent a lot of hours in the kitchen testing recipes. If you’ve been on my Instagram feed, you’ve seen the outcomes of two weekends’ worth of BBQ: smoked “American” Wagyu brisket, pork belly burnt ends, and BBQ pork ribs (St Louis cut from Matador Meat & Wine and Back Loin from Kroger’s in-house brand). Not to mention the prime (Matador) and A-wagyu (A Bar N) ribeyes we grilled up in the intervening period.

Of course, the add-ons to these main dishes are generally what makes an entire meal complete and wholly satisfying. In my household, it’s usually some vegetable side dish (brussel sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower are the main draws). When we’re craving carbs, it’ll be some grain-based or starchy side dish (think corn, pasta or potato).

Personally, my fave accompaniment to any beef cut is a couple of raw sliced red onions. It helps lessens the intense fattiness of some cuts (roasted beef ribs and prime rib) while enhancing the beefy flavor of a well-graded cut. It’s my only “required” vegetable topping on a medium-rare burger–hold the lettuce and tomato please!

Alas, raw onion consumption isn’t recommended for post-dinner social or romantic encounters…it’s the resultant onion breath and digestive mishaps that cause many to avoid the raw version altogether. If it’s at all included in a dish, onions often always get cooked past recognition–stripped exclusively for flavoring–if not discarded entirely.

Let’s not forget the discomfort that comes with preparing onions either, pungent smells and eye tearing tend to be the biggest reasons why the onion goes underutilized in kitchens. Not to mention the possible emergency room visit when an unskilled knife is applied to an irregularly globed surface.

I can rant on about onions in general, but let’s focus on the purpose of this post: which is about my pursuit of the tastiest fried onion recipe.

The fried onion gets no love it seems. It’s rarely offered on or ordered from restaurant menus when it competes with other fried vegetables, most popular of which is the potato fry. There’s only one dish that immediately comes to mind when fried onions are involved and it’s the green bean casserole dish–an ubiquitous entry on many a Thanksgiving dinner menu. Frequently, the fried onions adorning the dish came already commercially pre-cooked, dispensed from a can. Or, even faked–think Funyuns!

My love of fried onions has me seeking out restaurants, sampling various cuisines, and testing myriad recipes looking for a favorite, and I’ve eaten enough of them to know they generally fall into 2 camps: battered or breaded. Then they’ll appear in one of 2 forms: rings or strings. Of consideration is the type of onion used, normally yellow or white.

The problems I’ve had with nearly every fried onion I’ve eaten are the tastes and textures. Oftentimes the onion flavor disappears and you end up eating a mouthful of doughy batter and tasteless breading. When it’s not overwhelmed by the coating, the onion itself tends to be devoid of pungent sharpness due largely to the market’s preferences for mild, sweet onions: less sulfur and mellow cultivars!

As you may know by now, my food preference skews towards the bold and the strong. An onion should have bite: sharp, pungent, stinging without brutally assaulting the senses (though I’d argue that the freshest, bestest eating onion should make you cry). I’d like the flavor to be a touch sweet, which is why I enjoy red onions most of all, striking a balance between pungent and sweet. Then there’s the shallot…well that’s all I gotta say about that.

For this experiment, we are starting with tapioca flour (or starch) as the coating. I’ve had very good success with shallow frying tapioca flour, which produces a crisp exterior. How it’s applied is via a 2-step method: egg wash then dredge. Then the onion rings are deep fried in peanut oil between 350F to 375F.

The result is a crispy onion ring, if a little bland. I prefer to toss them in a stainless steel bowl and season them with a little salt and pepper. I also tried sprinkling parmesan over a small batch (anybody remember JT Mccords)…delish!

Stay tuned for my next fried onion experiment to take a stab at a different flour/coating.

Dining, Recipes

Recipe: Smoked Glazed Pork Belly (aka Pork Belly Burnt Ends)

The Labor Day weekend is summer’s last bow before fall arrives, and the holiday is usually marked with backyard cookouts across the US, involving grills and smokers.

My household planned on staying home during the weekend, spending some intimate time with the Big Green Egg XL…and I wanted to do something different with pork belly from my usual crispy smoked roast pork. I wanted something sweet, smoky…and spicy a la Sichuan style. And of course I’d heard of pork belly burnt ends so…

This here hunk of smoked pork belly with crisped skin…

…went back into the BGE with a generous application of my spice rub, along with helpings of butter, honey and brown sugar…

Which then turned into the sticky-sweet-and-savory pork belly dish below!

The only things I would have changed to this recipe: get a larger slab of pork and add some real heat–Sriracha or chili oil–to the glaze.  Oh, and I could’ve certainly used a lot less butter.

The recipe as is:

  • 6 tbsp salted butter (2 or 4 tbsp would be less wasteful)
  • 3oz Neem honey
  • 3oz light brown sugar
  • 1-2oz of spice rub (I used my cajun rub)
  • about 3 lbs of skin-on, boneless pork belly
  • a bunch of green onions, sliced, for garnish (optional)

In contrast to some burnt end methods that I’ve read, we didn’t cut or rub the pork belly before the smoke. We slapped the raw, uncut and unadorned pork belly onto the BGE to smoke at 300F (over hardwood coals and post oak logs) for about 15-20 minutes. We then applied direct heat to the skin for another 5-10 minutes to get crispy.

After pulling it off the smoker to slice and cube, I tossed the pork belly chunks in a foil pan with the glaze ingredients.  Then back onto the BGE they went for another 10-15 minutes to caramelize.

Once the pork belly got sticky and a little blackened, I pulled the pan from the smoker and let it sit while I chopped up the garnish.

It was mighty hard sneaking bites in of the hot bits of pork…but it was soooo delicious!

Fitness

Another extended fast 8/28-9/2

As a follow up to the week-long fast that began on 8/21, I proceeded to embark on another extended fast on 8/28 to offset the weekend binge and normalize my bio-markers for the long-term.

My blood glucose and blood pressure readings look fabulous as of this morning, all within normal reference ranges. In fact, if I didn’t know better, they look like the readings of an average healthy person.

Under the hood though, I felt tired and low energy this Friday morning…and my sleep was disrupted, thanks partly to some rambunctious kitten play during the night time hours. I’d like to find out how my thyroid is doing during these extended fasts, without going to my primary care doctor and getting lectured. So I’ll be researching online blood testing to see what’s possible.

The plan is to add a few more hours to this 2nd week of fasting to extend into Saturday midday, to adjust for the Labor Day holiday dining plans. I have some Wagyu steaks and brisket on the menu, and I’d like to better control my weekend diet before going into another fast.

One frequently mentioned side effect of not going keto or being fat-adapted prior to extended fasting is controlling hunger and cravings. So far, the literature regarding cravings have not been borne out during my fasts. Ghrelin levels may have declined, and “true hunger” pangs supposedly aligning with this, but in my case, my cravings reached epic, super-normal levels. There were instances on Thursday that I was ready to break into tears and emotional distress due to the anger and sadness I endured  while riding out the powerful urges.

The discomfort became so dire that I began to wonder if I had food addiction and was undergoing withdrawal symptoms. I admit, I’ve long associated hyper-palatable foods with fast-breaking, social gatherings, and stress-regulation, and I feel certain that I need to break this chemical dependence in order to reach a balanced, healthy state. I just wish I didn’t have to pile on a supposed eating disorder on top of everything else. Aside: did undergo ToM during this fast, so that may be a factor.

For the most part I’ve stayed consistent with weight training this month, as my JEFIT monthly log indicates. I just need to remain dedicated to the regular workouts and hope to increase muscle mass.