How to Make Maki Mi. (Pork Tenderlon Shitake Noodle Soup)

I was about to write something about dimsum and radish cake. Yoo see, all these nice goodies that we eat in Chinese restaurants at 2.50 (DOLLARS!) an order can be made at home. And while I was about to share the secrets of making radish cake, someone asked me to write instead Maki-Mi.

Maki Mi.

My mother said that Maki-Mi has been in existence since her childhood way back in the late thirties and the forties when she was a young teen living in Apo, Quezon City. For a bit of a historical context, no one actually knows who owns the original recipe. It is true; however that Ha Yuan restaurant in Binondo served this dish as long as anyone could remember. And it used to be that the original set up of this restaurant we as kids went to that had a wooden screen door with a spring door closer. Because Manila was not as hot as it is now, the inside was cooled by the traditional ceiling fans with large motors and the blades were large and heavy unlike the plywood blades of modern lighter ceiling fans today. They serve tea in these thick Duralex glasses. And aside from the Maki Mi that they are famous for, likewise is the Fresh Lumpia with its signature sweet sauce mixed with a few drops of Chinese chili sauce and ground peanuts with sugar condiment.

What does Maki stand for? The Ma is meat – usually lean pork tenderloin. The Ki – according to my Mom is the thickness of the soup. Usually, Chinese style soup is made thick by using a slurry of water plus tapioca starch. And tapioca is a must – for the consistency of the thickness is best described as somewhat akin to mucous (I know, it's gross – as in Tagalog, "mala-uhog") Notice that when one gets the spoon and ladles the soup, it somewhat elongates into a strand before it breaks.

Now imagine that consistency more pronounced in Maki. It's this consistency that gives the dish its character and no doubt, married with its flavor, its heartiness.

If noodles are added – it is filling. Indeed a meal by itself. This is where the "Mi" comes from – Hokkien Chinese for "noodles".

The flavor of Maki Mi comes from the consistency but equally important is the taste itself which is basically meat – pork to be exact. How this is achieved is through a blend of meat, condiments that further its meat taste and the sweetness that highlights it.

So enter shitake mushrooms. Dark with a very nice bite, its essence highlights further the umami flavor.

Next soy sauce – the eternal browning agent of Hokkien cooking. It is the reason why Humba (Hong-Ma or Hong-Ba a.k.a. "Hokkien Style Red Meat") exists. And usually Hokkien Chinese mothers would say - "Di to khe tau-yu, tsa u siyak!"(You have to put in a bit of soy sauce, if you want some color! - attributed to Mrs. Lily Sy, the mother of my high school classmate Richard Sy-Facunda.) One or two tablespoons of dark soy sauce does the trick! This trick has been extended by some to other cuisines as untraditional as it may seem. I remember how an acquaintance of mine decided to marinade turkey with soy sauce in order to promote browning when roasted.

Lastly, as typical with Filipino cooking, the fragrance of roasted onions and garlic is unique! What cuisine always saute onions and garlic to a deep brown to add to flavor and color? This is what makes Maki distinct.

So Maki is Chinese. It is also Filipino. It is "Tsinoy" ("Chinese Filipino").

Maki Mi

• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1/2 head garlic, chopped
• ½ cup oyster sauce (to taste)
• ½ cup light soy sauce (to taste)
• 6 pieces dried shitake mushrooms
• ¼ kilo pork tenderloin
• 2 quarts water
• ¼ cup tapioca starch (US: can be bought in supermarkets under the gluten free section. My suggestion – Asian stores sell it in plastic bags way cheaper made in Thailand. Philippines: this is also known as "gawgaw" or ironing starch. Now for a bit of trivia – remember Yan Can Cook – the '80s cooking show? Yan's Wonder Powder is actually this.)
• White pepper to taste
• More tapioca starch for dusting your pork pieces.
• Bundles of dried egg noodles. (Philippines: You can buy "miki sariwa" or fresh egg noodles – this is the best.)
• Spring onions – chopped for garnishing.

Procedure.

Prepare the soup. Wash the dried shitake mushrooms then soak for thirty minutes in warm water until soft. Drain while squeezing the mushrooms, saving the liquid. Slice the mushrooms lengthwise and cut crosswise into small thin pieces. Set aside.

Slice the pork tenderloin thinly into 1 inch in length. Beat them using a meat hammer to tenderize the pieces. Add white pepper and light soy sauce. Dust the meat with tapioca starch until evenly and thickly well coated. Set aside.

Saute the garlic and onions in hot oil until well roasted and brown taking care not to burn. Lower the heat if necessary.

Add a quart of water and cover. Let it boil to a simmer for fifteen minutes to extract the flavor of the onions and garlic. Strain.

Return this onion and garlic broth in a soup pot. Add the mushrooms and bring to a gentle boil. To this add the soy sauce and oyster sauce. Thicken with a slurry of tapioca starch and a little water. This will not only make the broth thick but shiny as well. Lower the heat and bring to a gentle thick boil.

Once boiling, drop the meat pieces in the broth. Because the broth is thick to begin with and the pork pieces have the starch coating, the more the soup would thicken. Simmer this soup further to extract the meat flavor. You may choose to season further with more oyster sauce for the right saltiness and sweetness.

Meanwhile, warm the noodles in another pot of boiling water. If using dried egg noodles, microwave the noodle bundle in a bowl with about ¾ cup of water at high for about a minute.

To the bowl of noodles ladle the soup until full. Garnish with chopped green onions and serve hot.

Fujian Style Five Spice Pork Ribs

I know. When anyone mentions the word, "ribs" a southern barbecue comes to mind complete with its images of thick brownish sweet tangy sauce usually reminiscent of tomatoes, brown sugar, honey perhaps with pepper, paprika and chili. Each recipe is somewhat unique altering the proportions of sweetness to tanginess and even the saltiness. But whether the sauce is Texan or Georgian or Louisinianan I find that the taste stimulants are somewhat similar to one another. However, there is a basic way to prepare ribs so that it is absorbed in flavor and "sink-in-teeth-fall-off-the-bone" tender. 

Pork ribs with Fujian Five Spice.

 First things first – tenderizing does not mean pre-boiling the ribs. My mother used to do this and I believe most Filipinos would do it but that's simply from the at least my experience that pork I bought from the wet markets in the Philippines were somewhat tough. Preboiling the ribs under pressure for about twenty minutes usually does the trick but I noticed that doing this sacrifices on the flavor. The meat's own juices are washed away in the broth. This is where this trick comes in. 

Mainly, slow cooking with the use of aluminum foil under medium oven heat ensures that the heat gets a chance to tenderize the meat by slowly degrading the proteins. Secondly, with the aluminum foil cover and seal, none of the meat's natural liquids would dry leaving the ribs tender, moist and most of all flavorful. 

Second, in connection to my comment regarding sauce, there are many ways one can explore the various flavors of ribs. It does not have to be barbecue sauce! In this installment, I am going to make ribs in the Hokkien (Fu-Jian) style which is mainly influenced by five spices much reminiscent of the Braised "Red Meat" (a.k.a. "Hong Ma") 

A bottle of Five Spice Powder.

Fu-Jian Style Five Spice Pork Ribs 

• 1 rack of pork ribs (St. Louis style) 
• 1/2 cup white sugar 
• ¼ cup five spice powder (Wu-Siang in Mandarin or Ngo-Hiyong in Hokkienese) 
• Salt and pepper to taste 
• ½ cup light soy sauce (if less salt is preferred, you may want to omit the salt and just use pepper to taste) 
• ¼ cup white sugar 
• Aluminum foil. 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 

2. Wash and pat dry the ribs using paper towels. Or let it drip dry for about fifteen minutes. 

3. Make a rub mixture consisting of the white sugar, five spices, salt and pepper. (Omit salt if less salt is preferred since soy sauce by itself is salty.) 

4. Using a piece of aluminum foil large enough to make a "pocket", lay the meat in the middle and wrap around it making sure all edges are sealed. Lay this on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for about two hours. 

5. Mix together light soy sauce and white sugar in a cup. 

6. At the end of two hours, open the foil and spread the soy sauce and sugar mixture evenly. Once again cover the meat with aluminum foil but doing a light seal. This would encourage drying the meat and caramelization of the soy sauce/sugar mixture. Be careful not to burn the meat in this process. This probably takes just ten to fifteen minutes. 

7. Cool a bit, rest and serve. 

   

   And yes! The smile of contentment could be in you!

Now, for the people that want a traditional barbecue ribs recipe, this is how I do it: 

1. Salt and pepper the ribs to your liking. 

2. Dust the ribs with loads of paprika. 

3. Bake the ribs in the same way as above for about two hours. 

4. Open the foil after two hours and pour a whole bottle of barbecue sauce. (You may also make your own usually by sauteing garlic, onions, some chillies, sugar, tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes or ketchup or combination of these. Some even add honey. Simmer all these until desired thickness. Salt to taste.) Caramelize as before. Let cool, rest and serve. 

I think I did discuss this in a former blog entry on "How to Make Barbecue Pork Ribs".

How to Make Dolades or Stuffed Grape Leaves

So I have this grapevine that I was hoping to give me a bountiful harvest. Instead, it just continued to give me loads of leaves than fruits - and some pesky Japanese beetles. 

Then there is dry rot. I found out that dry rot is caused by a fungus which unfortunately, once it hits the first fruits of the vine, is difficult to get rid of because the only cure is to remove all affected parts then spray the vine regularly with an antifungal. Also,one has to trim the vine regularly in order to lessen the leaves, promoting drying of the branches and especially the fruit, thereby preventing fungal growth.

Well, this year, just as I thought that I would be having loads of grapes at the beginning of the summer heat, I was just surprised that black spots began to appear on the fruits, drying them into black raisin-like ugly things. This was just the time when I realized that I was attacked by dry rot.

Getting rid of the rot was difficult because along with the bad fruits are the good ones on the same cluster and getting rid of the bad will mean sacrificing the good as well. And though I tried to get rid as much as I could of the bad grapes and despite the antifungal spray, still the dry rot kept coming. I think I have some salvaged, but still the grape harvest I was hoping for did not materialize.

On the other hand, there are leaves. 

Looking at them, not only were they gigantic but really healthy looking except when some of them were eaten by the Japanese beetles. Otherwise, the intact ones which I have to trim anyway became a commodity in my kitchen. Since I do feel guilty about throwing food away – a sentiment that I inherited from my World War stricken parents – I did the next best thing with these leaves.

Dolmades – a Greek appetizer is essentially rice wrapped with grape leaves. I have always been a fan of these morsels whenever I go to a Greek/Mediterranean restaurant. And I decided to do it myself. After some research and trial, here is my recipe. Now, they are vegetarian and even vegan! And very tasty too!

Dolmades that I made. They are tasty!

Dolmades.

• 40-50 Fresh grape leaves,usually about 4 inches in longest diameter, or two smaller leaves when overlapped would create similar size
• 1 cup long grain rice
• ½ cup sultana (golden) raisins (ordinary raisins would do)
• ½ cup pine nuts
• ¼ cup mint leaves, chopped finely
• ½ head garlic, peeled and chopped
• ½ head medium onion, peeled and chopped
• Olive oil for sauteing
• 1/8 cup lemon juice
• ½ cup lemon juice
• Salt to taste
• ¾ - 1 cup olive oil

1. Prepare the grape leaves as follows. If fresh, wash and blanch them for thirty minutes in newly boiled water, drain then squeeze dry. Do not be afraid to do this as the leaves are a bit tough and are resilient to breakage. If they are bottled, wash the amount of leaves needed and squeeze dry.
2. In a saute pan, heat olive oil and saute the garlic and onion until barely transparent. Add mint, pine nuts and rice and saute further until the rice is somewhat a bit translucent.
3. Add the 1/8 cup lemon juice and raisins, mix well and turn off the heat.
4. Wrap about a teaspoon of the above mixture in a grape leaf with the front side facing out. You can use two leaves with one overlapping the other to wrap the rice. Always remember to wrap the rice loosely.
5. Line a shallow pan (pyrex shallow pan would do but it needs to be stovetop safe) with the wrapped rice and pour the ½ cup lemon juice, 1 cup olive oil and more water until it covers every grape leaf dumpling  with the liquid. Add salt to preference.
6. Simmer under lowest stovetop heat until the liquids have reduced to almost more oil than water. Turn off the heat and leave it for the pan to cool. Serve.
7. The dolmades may also be stored in airtight jars or food containers in the refrigerator.

Cooking With Banana Leaves

I have been obsessed by banana leaves lately. It is reminiscent of my childhood since banana trees are all over the islands and getting the leaves to serve as plates is very much a common thing. They are very sturdy to hold food and is very much the idea of organic dining since they are biodegradable and can serve as good fertilizer. But what one does not discuss much is that banana leaves are a source of great food flavoring since it is earthy in aroma and when infused in cooking, makes the fish, meat or even staple such as rice, impart a secondary dimension to the palate. There is this leafy flavor that transforms to somewhat woodsy when subjected to heat. It is this flavorsome quality of the banana leaf that could be explored in so many ways.

Banana leaves.

I happen to have a bunch of frozen banana leaves which I bought from the Asian store months ago. The nice thing about them is they really do not spoil and never degrade with time. Thawed and when used, they still impart the same kind of aroma just as when they are picked fresh from the tree.

Frozen banana leaves from the store!

Now to those of you who live in the suburbs of Bucks and Montgomery counties in Pennsylvania, you may probably ask what Asian store sells banana leaves. I found out that ASSI - a chain of Korean grocery stores - sells them in their refrigerator aisle. If you are in Philadelphia of course, get them through any store in Chinatown.

That said, the next two recipes demonstrate how one can cook using banana leaves as a flavoring agent. Meanwhile, try this next tip. Next time you are going to eat steamed rice, wrap the cooked rice with banana leaves then steam them again on top of a steamer, with a vigorous water boil underneath. The leaves will get "cooked" by the heat, imparting that flavor I'm speaking of. Likewise, with the rice served with a banana leaf wrap, one can set these on the table upwrapped, using the leaf as plate. And after you're done, throw the leaf away - no dishwashing required!

Coconut Ginger Salmon - Infused with Banana Leaves

The original of this recipe is that the leaves fully wrap the fish which contains ginger, onions, grated coconut, salt and pepper. Then it is boiled lightly in a pan until the fish is done and flaky. In this version, I decided to bake the salmon on a bed of banana leaf in the oven's high heat along with the marinating spices and in the final minutes, add a generous helping of coconut milk. As the banana leaves toast, the resulting fumes will infuse the fish giving it a woodsy flavor that is complementary to the rich coconut milk and the pungent ginger.

• 1 long filet of salmon or steelhead
• 1 thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled and cut to thin slivers
• 1 small yellow or red onion, peeled and sliced or chopped finely
• ½ can of thick coconut milk
• Salt to taste
• Black pepper to taste
• 1 elongated green chili - sliced thinly if desired (gives a kick!)
• 1 banana leaf

Preheat oven 425 degrees.

Line a jelly roll pan with a whole wet banana leaf taking care not to tear it in smaller pieces allowing leakage of the coconut milk to be added later. However, if it does leak, this is likewise fine but you need to spoon out the coconut milk later transferring it to your serving dish.

Salt and pepper the fish and place on top of the banana leaf. Spread on top the onions, ginger and chili (if desired).



Steelhead salmon - salted, peppered, gingered, onioned

and may adda bit of sliced green chilis for a kick

Bake the fish on the middle rack for the next ten minutes. For all you smoke happy people out there, you can use the top rack knowing that the heat is rather intense and may result in mild burning of the leaf which imparts the infusion. Transfer the fish to the middle rack if this is a concern.

On the tenth minute, add the coconut milk on the top of the fish and bake for another five minutes. This will result in a medium rare fish. Cook longer if you want the fish to be a bit more done. Usually, twenty minutes will result in a medium to beginning well done fish.

Ten minutes in the oven. Fish is just about

to be done - medium rare. Add coconut milk

on top and back five minutes more.

Remove the fish by lifting the leaf and transferring everything to an oblong dish. Serve hot.

This is just about done!

Transfer to an oblong dish with or without leaves

and spoon the milk on top.

Dutch Oven Pandan-Ginger Chicken.

To the ones who saw my video and article on the Filipino dish, "Pinaupong Manok" - translated as, "Sitting Chicken", this is somewhat related to that. Before I begin, a little bit of history.

In 19th century Philippines, ovens as was in other countries were humongous kitchen utilities since they require wood and coal to keep the heat constant. Can one just imagine that the cake was in the middle of baking when suddenly the coal runs out and the heat begins to falter sending the cake to a flat disaster! Also, since one cannot open the oven constantly just to feed it with coal and wood to maintain heat, the chamber where the fuel is located is different from the baking rack. In this regard, the original brick ovens were large, taking roomful of space and thus only the well-to-do can afford them. Thus, baking and roasting was a method that wasn't readily available to all especially the poor. By ingenuity, they developed another method to achieve roasting without the use of ovens.

In the west, this is known as the pot roast which is a browned large piece of roasting meat, set in the middle of the pot lined with a metal guard that keeps the meat's undersides from touching the pot preventing burning. In the Philippines where clay pots were a traditionally used item, the chicken roast was done with a similar though modified set up. There is a bed of salt on which a banana leaf wrapped whole chicken sits. The salt would prevent the chicken from touching direct heat and hence burning. Likewise, since salt dehydrates any fluid it comes into contact with, the pot would be devoid of water juices hence roasting the meat.

Now, ovens are a common kitchen appliance and thus one can roast a chicken easily in the convenience of one's home. That said, we can do away with pot roasting and instead cook the meat in a dutch oven. And so here, the dutch oven is used to provide even heat which tenderizes and cooks the chicken. The banana leaf serves not just as a lining and guard from the pan's intense heat but provides an infusion of flavor into the meat.

A word about pandan. Lovely leaf. It has this sweet smell reminiscent of a delicate vanilla flavor but not floral that limits its use in deserts (unlike vanilla). It is used also in savory flavored dishes. This leaf can also be bought in the freezer aisle of the Asian supermarket.

• 1 whole chicken
• 1 piece ginger - double thumb sized, peeled and sliced thinly
• 3 stalks pandan leaf
• 1 small onion
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Banana leaves

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cut the chicken lengthwise from the neck to the bottom cavity opening the carcass. Salt and pepper to taste.

This is how pandan leaves look like.
Just use three or four is enough.

Line the bottom of a dutch oven with a banana leaf. Line this with several pieces of onions, ginger and pandan leaf.

Chicken - flayed open. Salted and peppered. Place skin
side up on a bed of banana leaves, lined by pandan and
ginger. Also, tuck ginger slices underneath the legs and wings.

Place the chicken on this with the skin side up. Tuck underneath the wings and legs a piece of ginger. Then over this with another banana leaf and the dutch oven cover.

Cover further with banana leaves.



Cover with the dutch oven lid.

Bake for two hours and turn off the heat. Leave to cook to serving temperature - usually warm.

Bake as above. Turn off heat and leave alone to warm.
Because of the dutch oven being heavy, moisture would
not leave and and the chicken will not dry up. Instead, it
will tenderize the meat further!

Now the leaves are roasted with the heat - and this
infuses the meat for flavor!

And yum, yum, yum!!!