Pork Soup with Shark Bone and Seaweed (Chinese Soup #1)

[Revised to add]
Please note we bought and made this soup prior to knowing how devastating the practice of shark finning is to the current population of sharks and to the ecology of the oceans. This was, in fact, the only instance we have prepared anything with shark bones. Apart from this soup (whose shark bone came already pre-packaged with the rest of the ingredients), we're happy to say we have not partook of any shark fin products and will continue to abstain from it.

To our then and future anonymous commenters who wish to speak on this topic, I would appreciate it if you would be courageous enough to publish a name. I would also appreciate it if you could keep the conversation civil.

For information on shark finning, a good film to watch would be Sharkwater by Rob Stewart.

[ts]
While perusing the aisles of our favorite Chinese supermarkets, we always wonder about these "convenience" packs for soup-making that we see. See, we (or Mama) don't really make these types of Chinese soups at home, the types with the "weirdo" things in it like honey date, dried longan, beans and whatnot.

Basically, these were very exotic for me! ;)


convenience food, Chinese-style

[js]
I just find it somewhat amusing that the "convenience packs" this Chinese supermarket has still require about an hour or two to cook. It's not something you can plop into the microwave 5 minutes before you want to eat and have it ready. Guess if the particular defect we have is poor planning then we're out of luck. ;)

[ts]
Curiosity got the better of me and I had to have one of these packs. Problem is, which one? There were so many to choose from! Even though I knew that we would have to eat similar soups two days in a row, I went ahead and chose 2 packs. This is the first.

"Shark Bone Seaweed with Pork"


[ts]
This pack had pork and pork backbone, seaweed, peanuts, mung beans, honey dates, dried longans, dried orange peel, and shark fin.

Look! Wow! It's a blood tonic (I don't know what that means) and helps prevent cancer! Cool. I originally wanted something to help cool "hot" (yang) from the body but I eventually chose this (and another one).

I like how the directions assume you know how to cook soup. That is, it didn't need to specify a stockpot size or how much water to add.



[ts]
Oh, by the way, this pack was less than $7.00, but look at all that meat! I ended up slicing the pork meat but left the bones alone.



[ts]
The rest of the "exotic" ingredients. ;)


seaweed


shark fin/bone


dried orange peel


honey date


mung beans (green bean)


peanuts


dried longans
(Our mother eats these as a snack.)



[ts]
There they are all dumped into a pot. As per the instructions, I added water (to cover) and let it come to a boil. Then I covered and simmered it until done (when the meat is tender).

Ta-da!

Convenient Chinese Soup!

[ts]
The soup had a familiar pork broth taste (pork bone soup/ma-kut soup being one of Mama's favorite things to cook) and a "sweetness" to it. This is one of those soups that are served as the "house soup" in homier Chinese restaurants.

My only complaint was the sharkbone: it smelled so fishy! (Malansa.) Ech. And somehow, cooking it in the soup did not really get rid of its fishiness. This could've been left out altogether.

Otherwise, it was good. For about seven bucks, you get a whole lot of soup... and meat! Just add rice to it and it's a meal.


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Pork Soup with Shark Bone and Seaweed (Chinese Soup #1)
Pork Soup with Hairy Gourd and Peanuts (Chinese Soup #2)

Grilled Tilapia with Lime Salt and Mango Salad

[js]
Ever since my spectacular failures grilling fish, I've become gun-shy grilling fish on the grill.

They all come out. . . not pretty. Which is an understatement.

I've had fishies that only its mother could love -- provided that its mother could recognize it as her childfish.


Remember this?!?! There are more uglies in our "Ugly Fish" post.

But, as they say, you only fail when you stop trying.

Grilled whole fish is something I so love (pike mackerel), one of my most anticipated and most cherished food experiences ever, so I do want to keep trying.

I picked up some tilapia at the supermarket. On most days, tilapia is the one fish that we can have alive, swimming in the fish tanks, at a reasonable enough price.


Sidenote: I do miss my childhood, where we can have quite a goodly selection of freshly caught fish at the wet markets. Gone are those days.

So here, me getting back my courage, I hedged my bets by tying up the fish with string.

I also put some lime slices inside the cavity of fish, seasoned them simply with salt and pepper.

I had a couple of jalapeno peppers losing their way and finding themselves in the thick of things.

TS made some lime salt and we served the fish with mango salsa.



[js]
Awesome grilled fish. I think I'm emboldened enough to try grilling fish again.

Chimichurri with Flank Steak

[ts]
This was originally titled "Flank Steak with Chimichurri", but I felt "Chimichurri with Flank Steak" was more fitting.

This dish was all about the chimichurri!



[ts]
We used Bittman's basic recipe (in The Best Recipes in the World) as a guide at first, but we now more or less wing it.

So in goes about 3-5 cloves of garlic and 2 chile peppers (instead of red pepper flakes), chopped, the the juice of one lemon, a glurg of olive oil and a whackload of chopped parsley from the market.

That's it!

There is something magical that happens when you combine garlic, chile peppers, lemon juice and olive oil. We thought we hit the jackpot before when we started making our own peri-peri (for peri-peri chicken). This is just as good and it's even simpler! The only difference is that chimichurri uses a lot of parsley.

Chimichurri is sobrang pampagana. A translation of this would be. . .

[js]
I can't think of a neat, exact word translation for the phrase.

"Sobra" just means super, exceedingly so, and the "pampagana" -- well, think of a person's appetite like a fire, and the chimichurri as more hot coals to stoke the hot, hot fire.

Like our appetites need any more stoking. We are a family of big eaters, and on normal days, our appetites are already burning at about 700 degrees. The chimichurri just added about 500 degrees to the blazing fire!

Sobrang pampagana, translated, not so very elegantly, is "super-appetite-stoker." Just add a bit more gusto to that phrase and you have it.

This chimichurri is really quite a hit and we are lucky to have extra chimichurri left for the next day. After all, we have some guests who were eating the chimichurri with a spoon and drinking it like soup.

Yup, true.

Super-appetite-stoker!

Chimichurri is that good.

[ts]
Oh yeah -- (afterthought, haha) -- we served chimichurri with some flank steak, along with duck fat potatoes and yellow bean-English peas & dill salad.



[js]
I rubbed the flank steak with a little bit of salt, pepper, and cumin. Lime juice and lime zest were also massaged into the beef.

There is a natural affinity between grilled beef and chimichurri and one bite just leads to the next which leads to the next which leads to the next. . .

Super-appetite-stoker!



[js]
Although the chimichurri is quite magical with beef, its applications can be diverse, not limited to meats. The next day, the extra chimichurri we had we tossed with some string beans (just microwaved) and the string beans were devoured with gusto.

Super-appetite-stoker!

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Market Loot Series
Pesto Potato and Green Bean Salad
Yellow Beans, English Peas, Radish and Dill Salad
Grilled Corn
Fried Green Tomatoes
Chimichurri with Flank Steak
...