ANCIENT RECYCLED FLAVOR NOW

Thinking about beautiful recycling this week, I began to crave a dish I only had once, over 20 years ago. I was a dinner guest at a friend’s friend’s home.

When I first heard that we were about to dine on poached filet mignon, I got a little worried. Then, when I heard it was poached in a liquid that had been sitting around for hundreds of years, I worried more… then became intrigued.

Photo: Courtesy of Sybaritica. Chinese Master Sauce.

Our host, a Chinese cooking teacher, was doing a calm bustle around the kitchen, finishing up, and beginning to plate, as she began to answer my questions about the ancient liquid.

 

She explained that it was a traditional Chinese sauce, called a Master Sauce (鹵水), that was originally cooked by her great great great great great grandmother and that it had been recycled throughout the generations.

Photo: Courtesy of Sybaritica. Chinese Master Sauce.

The original stock, made with a blend of aromatics and soy sauce, served as a poaching liquid for a whole chicken.The liquid was saved for a week later, then boiled with a new piece of meat… perhaps some beef ribs, or a slab of pork.

 

The liquid was saved again for a week, then boiled again with fresh meat, and  process continued on through years, then decades, then centuries.

Photo: Courtesy of Charles Gardiner Antiques. Tin Pail.

Wait, how can you eat something that old and live to cook it again?

 

The repeated boiling effectively killed any microbes that might have killed humans. And it yielded ever-more fortified, ever-deeper layers of flavor.

Photo: Courtesy of Antiques. Asian Porcelain Pottery.

This evening, my host was recycling her family’s Master Sauce again for the poached beef. She promised it was safe.

 

The dish was haunting… in a good way. I remember an intense velvety umami melt. I can close my eyes and my tongue can be there… a vivid mouth dream… propelling me today, twenty years later, to research the recipe and make it now, so I can taste that dream again.

Photo: Courtesy of Please Pass the Recipe. Master Stock.

I found a few examples of Master Sauce recipes that had some things in common.  Ginger, garlic, scallion, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, and soy were in most versions. They also contained some form of sugar. The traditional ones used yellow slab or rock crystal sugar, while contemporary recipes use brown or white sugar.

Photo: Courtesy of Off the Spork. Master stock soy sauce beef ribs.

Master Stock or Sauce is a great thing to have on hand. It can transform meat, poultry, tofu, and vegetables into a luxurious meal in no time. We love this recipe for beef ribs, posted recently by Off the Spork.

 

MASTER STOCK SOY SAUCE BEEF RIBS

 

Ingredients:

 

• 3 cups thin soy sauce

• 2/3 cup black/dark soy sauce

• 2/3 cup Chinese rice cooking wine

• 500g yellow rock sugar

• 1 & 1/2 cups brown sugar

• 8 star anise

• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and lightly crushed

• 4 beef ribs - about 1kg

• 300g daikon, peeled and cut into chunks
   

Instructions:

 

1. In a large pot, combine all the masterstock ingredients.

2. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.

3. When the rock sugar has completely dissolved, make sure you taste it. It should be fairly salty, but also have a touch of sweetness. Add more sugar if it's too salty.

4. Place the beef ribs and master stock into a pressure cooker and close the lid.

5. Bring pressure cooker to full pressure and cook the beef ribs for 35 minutes.

6. Release the pressure and open the lid. Add the daikon and return to high pressure and cook for another 5 minutes.

7. Release the pressure and remove the ribs and the daikon from the masterstock.

8. Bring the masterstock back to the boil and boil for 5-10 minutes. Skim off the fat, strain it, and store in the fridge or freezer to use another day.

9. (Alternatively, if you don't have a pressure cooker, braise the ribs on the stove until they are tender.)

10. Plate and serve. (We like them atop rice noodles.) Serves four.
     

Note: To store a master stock: boil after using, skim off the fat, and strain. After it’s cooled, store in the fridge (if you’ll be using it again within a day) or into the freezer. Occasionally it will need to be topped up with more soy sauce, sugar and spices.

Photo: Courtesy of The Stock Merchant. Caramelised Pork Belly.

If you don’t have time to make it yourself, or you don’t have Master Sauce legacy in your fridge, Stock Merchant Free Range Master Stock is not your everyday stock-in-a-box. It’s made of organic ingredients that are right in line with tradition. It amped by mandarin peel, fennel seeds, Shaoxing rice wine, and Sichuan pepper.

 

Master Stock with Caramelised Pork Belly

 

Ingredients:

 

• 1 litre The Stock Merchant Free Range Master Stock

• 1 kg free range or organic pork belly

• 20g red shallots, finely sliced

• 30ml rice wine vinegar

• 300g brown sugar

• 10ml fish sauce

• 10ml lime juice

• 20g handful fresh coriander leaves

• 10g long red chilli, deseeded and sliced

• 10g black sesame seeds

• Steamed rice or noodles
   

Method:

1. In a large saucepan or stockpot, heat Master Stock and bring to the boil.

2. Add pork belly and gently simmer for one hour. Remove and set aside to cool.

3. Soak shallots in brown vinegar.

4. In a deep-sided frying pan, heat brown sugar over medium heat and stir until caramelised.

5. Add one cup Master Stock, fish sauce and lime juice.

6. Return to heat until liquid is reduced and thickened.

7. Cut cooked pork belly into slices and add to reduced Master Stock mixture.

8. Mix together the parsley or coriander leaves, shallots and chilli.

9. Place slices of caramelised pork on plate, sprinkling sesame seeds and parsley or coriander leaves mixture over the top.

10. Serve with steamed rice or noodles.
     

Adapted from a Caroline Velik recipe found at: Daily Life.

Read more about Recycled Beauty as it relates to Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact in our posts throughout this week, including The Most Beautiful Redux and Mind Blowing Recyclers.

 

Get busy and enter the BN Competitions, Our theme this week is Recycled Beauty. Send in your images and ideas. Deadline is 11.24.13.

 

Photo: Courtesy of InterActiveMediaSW.

 

Also, check out our special competition: The Most Beautiful Sound in the World! We are thrilled about this effort, together with SoundCloud and The Sound Agency. And we can’t wait to hear what you’ve got!